To The Better Days
by simpleeawkward
Summary: After the war, Tenten commits suicide. Tsunade, realizing the the low morale is horrible for the reconstruction, decides to send Sakura to the past. With a max limit of 15 years, Tsunade sends her to a time when Uchiha Itachi still didn't know about the Uchiha Clan's plans - to a time before he was even on the path to becoming a martyr. ItaSaku. Rated M for a reason.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

...My newest story. I know the plot is overwritten on ff, but, from the ones that I have read, my plot is pretty different. :) It is pretty impossible for me to read all of them, so I hope that it isn't exactly like any other ones. If it is, please let me know and I'll change it?

* * *

Prologue

She stares out the window. It's raining today. Only today.

But it feels as if it has been raining for a long time now.

She just wants to scream; she just wants to let out all of her feelings, but she doesn't quite know what she is feeling.

She is sitting on the window pane, with one shoulder touching the cold glass of the window. There is a somewhat warm blanket covering her lower body, but she feels as cold as ever. On her lap is a photo frame. In the photo, there are three other people besides her.

The oldest person in the photo has a hideous bowl cut and bushy eyebrows. He is also donning the most hideous outfit of all time – a green leotard. There are two young boys in the photo too. One boy looks exactly like a younger version of the older man. The other boy has pale eyes and long brown hair – the source of all her pain.

Ever since the day he went away, things have never been the same.

Some days were better than others, but none of her current days could compare to the days before he left forever.

Nothing has been the same.

She knows that they all fought long and hard for what they have now – the happiness many of the ignorant ones have now, but she just can't forget all of it.

The war was horrible.

All the sights she saw, all the losses…she can't accept them, not even after all the months that have passed.

Konoha is on the road to recovery, but she remains broken.

She has tried to get better. Lee and Gai-sensei have tried to help her, but, as soon as she was alone again, she would revert back to this shell of a person.

She doesn't know how she felt towards Neji. She isn't sure if it was love or not, but she knows that she cannot accept that her sparring partner is gone. She knows that Neji's death affected her whole team, not just her, but she sometimes feels as if she is the only one that still cares.

Whenever she goes out, she feels as if people are laughing at her. It's hateful, but she can't help it. Nobody remembers Neji like she does. People are still smiling and happy. She was fine with everything at first, but the more she thought about it, the more she thought that Madara did not get what he deserved.

Tears form around her eyes.

People barely even care that Neji is gone.

Would people care if she were gone?

Tears stream down her face.

She raises a hand to her long hair and pushes it away from her face as she cries harder.

She knows that her tears don't do anything – her tears won't bring him back.

But she can't help it.

What now?

She doesn't want to go back to the battlefields. She has tried that, but the world is so peaceful right now that there is barely any work for shinobi aside from helping the reconstruction.

She doesn't know what to do. She doesn't know where to go from here.

She has been lost ever since the end of the war.

She has lost sight of her goals.

She can't even remember what her goals were before.

She's broken.

Everyone sees it, but no one knows what to do to help her.

She, herself, doesn't even know if anything can help her.

She looks at the photo in her lap.

Neji.

Like a bird, he had flown away.

She didn't even get to say goodbye to him.

He had just left.

If she were to die right now, would she be together with him again?

Would she be happy for once?

Who would cry for her like she is for Neji?

Would anyone even care?

Everyone is so preoccupied that they barely even care about her.

She looks out the window again.

The dreary sky seems as if it is encouraging her.

With some final tears, she gets up from her position on the window pane. Wrapping the blanket around her tighter, she takes some steps to her nightstand, where her beloved weapons lay.

She can't remember why she loved them so much.

She can't remember what she had hoped to achieve in all of this.

With Neji, she had died along with him.

She grasps the kunai tightly in her hand. She holds back tears as she rakes the kunai against her wrists, letting her blood fall to the ground.

It has been a long few months.

* * *

Tenten isn't exactly my bias, so I don't know what she is like, so she might be quite OCC-like. I apologize for that. :( But yeah, I hope that she isn't too different in this prologue, but this story doesn't revolve around her, so I think the seven hundred or so words in here don't really say anything about her, so please don't hate me? I only used her to get the story moving. :( I assumed that out of her and Lee, she would be the more likely one to do this too.

Anyways, I'm not sure how often this story will be updated. Schoolwork is such a hassle nowadays. :(


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Since I messed up on uploading the prologue last night, I decided to upload a chapter today. Hahaha. :( Without further ado, please enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 1

They're all at the hospital – Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Hinata, Ino, Kiba, Shino, Sai, Shikamaru, and Chouji. They're waiting outside of the emergency room. Sakura and Ino both weren't allowed to assist in the surgery. They are too close to the victim, Tsunade said.

Now they're just sitting outside, waiting in the newly constructed hospital.

They're waiting for any news.

They're also waiting for _him_.

He's the last of the teenagers to arrive at the hospital.

Lee.

He stares straight ahead, eyes wide.

Sakura gets up from her seat and walks over to him. She wraps her arms around him. He doesn't blink. He stares at the double doors as if hoping for a miracle – and he is. He is hoping for a miracle.

He lost one teammate not a few months ago. He can't lose the other one now.

"It's going to be okay, Lee," Sakura says. "We can get through this."

Naruto is the next one at his side. He blocks Lee's view of the door. "We're still here for you."

"What's…" Lee asks. His voice isn't strong as it usually is. He is pale and he is cold. Even the warm embrace of Sakura's doesn't soothe him.

"They say it doesn't look good," says Naruto.

"She – Tenten…" says Lee. All of them can hear the sadness in Lee's voice. They can also tell that he is about to cry.

"We're here for you, Lee," says Sakura, "Don't forget that."

"Why," Lee asks. "Just why?! Why my team?!"

The rest of them are speechless.

As if a twisted prank, the emergency doors open and a bed is pushed out of them. There is a figure on the bed – the white blanket covering from head to toe.

Lee stands rooted in his spot in Sakura's arms. He doesn't move. He stares as the bed pushes by him. The nurses look at him pitifully and briefly.

Shizune steps closer to them. "She lost too much blood. There wasn't much that we could do. She – she only had a weak pulse by the time she got here."

"WHY?!" Lee yells, "Why couldn't you save her?!" He pushes Sakura away from him and grabs the older woman by the arms. "You're a medic, aren't you?! Why?!"

Gai shows up at the end of the hall. He watches as the stretcher passes him. He stumbles and Kakashi hurriedly grabs onto him to stable him. Kakashi watches as Gai looks down the hall again. He sees Lee, who is now shaking Sakura by the arms.

"You could have saved her, couldn't you?!" Lee yells, "You – you're a medic – you should have – you…"

"Lee," Gai scolds, "Is that how you treat ladies?"

Lee turns around. Gai sees the tears streaming down Lee's face and he finds that he cannot stop the tears from streaming down his own face as he watches his last student in pain.

He walks over and grabs the boy into a tight hug.

"Guys, let's give them some time alone," says Kakashi. "Let's go."

All of the others, all silent, leave. Sakura and Naruto stand in place. They don't want to leave Lee alone right now. Kakashi steps behind them and gives them a light push. They can see the small sad smile behind his mask as they walk further away from their sensei, who stays behind.

Things like this happen. They've always known that, but they never thought that it would happen to one of them.

Naruto puts a hand on Sakura's shoulder and squeezes slightly. "We'll be fine."

"Idiot, are you trying to convince me or yourself?"

"Both of us."

Sakura takes a deep breath. "I just – " Her words are caught in her throat.

"I know," he agrees.

They see Sasuke waiting for them at the entrance of the hospital.

They both knew the pain of losing a teammate.

But Sasuke is alive. He is well. He is still in the world.

They aren't able to comprehend the pain that Lee and Gai must be going through. To lose one teammate to war and another one just months later… they can't understand. They haven't had to understand such pain.

They were able to get Sasuke back.

Lee is unable to. Both of his teammates have left the world.

They don't want to ever be able to know that pain.

"Would you kill me if I hugged you right now?" Sakura asks Sasuke.

Sasuke doesn't answer.

Sakura tries to smile as she walks closer to Sasuke and wraps an arm around him. With her other arm, she reaches out to grab Naruto. Naruto wraps his arms around his teammates too. Sasuke, not one to show affection to anyone, doesn't wrap his arms around them, but having their arms around him comforts him too.

After the past few months, he has come to realize that the deaths of Sakura or Naruto would have hurt him greatly. He definitely would not have been the same had the two of them died.

He's glad they're still alive.

They're all being a little selfish.

They're glad it's not their team.

For a team that seemed doomed from the start, they're not doing so badly.

"Haruno Sakura," says an ANBU, appearing a few feet away from them, "The Hokage would like to speak to you."

Naruto and Sakura let go of each other and of Sasuke and look at the ANBU operative.

"Just Sakura?" asks Sasuke.

"Yes," says the ANBU.

"Okay," Sakura says as she smiles. She turns to her two teammates, "I'll be right back. Meet you guys later on the bridge?"

The two boys nod. Naruto forces a smile and Sasuke, well, remains stoic as ever.

X

Arriving outside of Tsunade's door, Sakura knocks slowly as she looks past the open door.

"Ah, Sakura, come in," Sakura can hear the sadness in Tsunade's voice.

Sakura steps into Tsunade's new office.

"You wanted to see me?" Sakura asks.

"Close the door behind you," says Tsunade.

Sakura suddenly realizes that this is going to be a very serious conversation.

She turns around and closes the door behind her.

"Now," she starts, crossing her hands in front of her, "After today's tragedy, I'm worried for Konoha's future." She pauses as she closes her eyes. "The Sandaime left me in charge of a jutsu before he left us again, as a last resort. I thought that I wouldn't have to use it, but after all of this, I feel as if this jutsu is suddenly necessary."

"What does this jutsu do?" Maybe Tsunade needs her to assist in this justsu, Sakura figures.

"I can't tell you that yet," she says, "First, you have to accept this mission."

"No other details?" Sakura asks.

"All I can say is that…if you do take this mission and if it is a success, all this pain and suffering right now…it will be all over."

"But…?"

"I'm not sure of the jutsu's outcomes."

"So you're using this jutsu…on me."

"If you accept."

"If I accept and it goes well, everything will be better?"

"Everything will be different."

"Lee and – and Tenten…they'd be good?"

"She might even be alive."

"I'll do it."

Tsunade looks so forlorn. "I don't know what would happen to you at the end of this mission, Sakura. I just want you to know that."

"I don't care. If it means that everyone else is happy, I'll do it."

Tsunade smiles sadly. "I knew you would say that. It's one of the reasons why I didn't want you to be the one to have to take this mission."

"So why me?"

"Because you're the most qualified. I also think that you're the one that would be able to make the most difference."

"What is this mission…?"

"You accept it, yes?"

"Yes. Definitely."

Tsunade can see the determination in Sakura's eyes – in her stance.

"In this mission, I will be sending you to the past."

"The past?"

"Yes," she says, "From what the Sandaime has told me, the maximum number of years I can send you to the past is fifteen." She pauses. "I would send you to the time before Konoha was even created, but since that is impossible, I will be sending you to your own childhood – to when you were seven years old."

"Why that time?"

"Because that was before the first time that Danzo made an actual move and Uchiha Itachi was still the golden child."

"You want me to prevent the Uchiha Massacre."

"Yes," she says, "And before that, you have to prevent the death of Uchiha Shisui."

"Okay."

"I don't know how to get you back from the past, Sakura, so it may well be that you will be stuck in that time, or even vanish once the future has been changed."

"I see…"

"You do know the importance of this mission, right?"

Sakura nods. "I know."

"Since you have accepted, for the next few days, I will be briefing you on all of the big events of the past. I will also feed you small facts and information that I think is important."

Sakura nods again. "No problem."

"Since we don't have many files to document those events, I will be inviting various people to tell you of their experiences."

Sakura nods. "I understand."

"I don't want you to feel as if all of this has been pushed on you, and if, at any time throughout the next few days, you feel as if you're under too much pressure, you just tell me, okay?"

"I will." Sakura smiles. "I won't, though. You know I won't."

"I know you won't," Tsunade repeats. "That is why I chose you." Tears fill her eyes. She stands up from her chair, walks around her desk and up to Sakura. She pulls the seventeen year old into her arms. "Sending you off will be one of the hardest things I've ever had to do."

"I know, shishou. I know."

X

For the next few days, Sakura met with many shinobi, asking about their experiences. Kakashi was one of them. Sasuke was also one of them. They both didn't quite understand why Sakura was asking such weird questions, but they cooperated anyways. Sasuke couldn't really answer some of the questions without the painful memories attacking him, but he still answered to the best of his abilities.

Soon, she was ready.

She is currently laying down in the middle of an intricately drawn circle of designs and various characters. It is all drawn with Tsunade's blood. Shizune and Tsunade are seated across from each other on different sides of the circle.

"I'll be sending you ten years into the past," says Tsunade, "I'm also hoping that this extra jutsu will turn you into a twelve year old. Remember, you have one year before the Uchiha Massacre."

"Okay."

Sakura is a bit nervous. She's going to be traveling back to the past. There will be no one that knows her – no one for her to confide in.

"I know you're nervous, Sakura," says Tsunade, "But don't worry, everything will go well. I believe in you."

"Tsunade-sama, I think that Sakura should be able to tell a select few people of her situation. Secretive people."

Sakura gets the hint. A young Naruto, while he would definitely be able to cheer her up from anything, would definitely not be a person to confide in.

"I guess so," says Tsunade, "But who?"

"The Sandaime is known for keeping his word," says Shizune, lightheartedly. She's trying to lighten the mood, but it doesn't really work that well.

Sakura laughs lightly. "I got it. Thank you for letting me tell some people."

"It's only appropriate," says Tsunade, "I don't expect you to be there for years and not tell anyone. Being able to tell the Sandaime would make your mission a lot easier too. Good job, Shizune."

Sakura looks at Shizune. She gives her an encouraging smile.

"Okay, it's ready," says Tsunade, who quickly heals her finger.

She looks at Sakura. "You ready?"

Sakura nods. "I'm ready."

"This is going to hurt," says Tsunade.

Tsunade shoots Shizune a look, telling her to start. The two of them make complicated seals simultaneously, and at the last seal, Sakura feels a sharp pain at her head. It feels as if her head is splitting in half. Sakura bites her lip to keep herself from howling out in pain. She might have drawn blood too.

Tsunade and Shizune shoot each other a look, asking if they should stop, but they see the way that Sakura is so determined to make this mission a success. They can't just stop now. They watch as Sakura shrinks in size. They watch as she reverts back to her twelve year old self. Tsunade's extra jutsu had worked.

And just like that, a few seconds later, Sakura is gone. The circle seal on the ground fades away with her.

"Good luck, Sakura," says Tsunade.

* * *

I don't expect this story to be a short one, so I'm trying to get the story to move faster at the beginning. Sorry of this chapter seems rushed. It kind of was. I want to get to writing the ItaSaku portionssss~~. Hahaha. :) Tell me what you think so far.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

LONG CHAPTER, YAY!

* * *

Chapter 2

Someone's poking her forehead.

_Where am I_?

Again, someone's poking her forehead.

Her emerald eyes snap open, but they close shut not even a millisecond later. It's so bright out. She then slowly opens them again. She sees a figure in front of her eyes. The spiky hair seems a little familiar, but the figure is so small – it can't be.

Then she realizes where she is.

The jutsu was a success.

"Who are you?" asks the person looming over her.

As her vision clears, she realizes who it is.

It's Sasuke. At seven years old.

Sakura groggily sits up. Her head still feels like shit, but it's getting better.

"Where am I?"

"Where are you?" he asks, "Do you not remember?"

She shakes her head. "Who are you?"

It's one of the scenarios that Tsunade had given her - feign amnesia.

"Where am I? Who – who are you?" She grabs onto her hair with both of her hands. "Who am I?"

"Sasuke, who – " she hears someone say.

Sakura immediately turns and looks at him. She's supposed to be paranoid as an amnesia patient, but she truly is quite scared of the Uchiha Clan prodigy.

She sees Uchiha Itachi emerge from behind the foliage. He's younger, and she knows that he's only twelve, but he still looks older than his age.

He is in front of Sasuke not a second after seeing her. An arm is in front of Sasuke protectively.

"Who are you?"

"Nii-san," says Sasuke, "She can't remember who she is."

Itachi glares at her. "You don't know whether or not she's telling the truth."

"But she has pink hair," says Sasuke, "She can't be that dangerous."

Wow.

Just wow.

Is it possible that Sasuke also thought she was weak because of her bubblegum colored hair?

It's hard for her to believe that this sweet little kid turns into the stoic teammate of hers.

"Are you a shinobi?" Itachi asks.

"I don't think so?" she answers.

"Do you know what a shinobi is?" he asks.

"Yes."

"What do you know?"

"I'm not sure?"

"We're going to have to bring you back with us," says Itachi, "Sasuke, let's go."

"Okay!" Sasuke chirps.

Sakura gets up slowly, clutching her pounding head with one hand. Itachi grabs her wrist.

"Wait." He reaches into his weapons pouch and pulls out some thread. She watches as he covers the thread with his chakra and ties it around her wrists. "Precautionary measures."

Sakura nods. "I understand."

Sasuke leads the way back to wherever they're going.

"So there really isn't a polite way to ask this, but who are you two?"

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke!" says Sasuke as he turns and walks around backwards, "He's my brother, Itachi."

Sakura can't help but smile at the little boy. Seriously, how did everything turn out so wrong? Itachi is watching her every move, making sure that she doesn't harm his little brother. He also sees the smile that appears on her face as she looks at his little brother. There's no malice – no ill intent. She doesn't seem so bad, he figures.

"So where are we?" she asks.

"Konoha," Itachi responds.

"So do you know where you're from, nee-san?" asks Sasuke.

Sakura looks down in thought, then she shakes her head. "I can't remember."

"Is there anything that you do remember?" asks Itachi.

Sakura looks to him and shakes her head.

"What's twelve times twelve?" asks Itachi, again.

"One hundred and forty four," she responds.

"Do you know who our Hokage is right now?" he asks.

"Sarutobi Hiruzen?"

"So you know basic knowledge," he says.

"So where are we going?" she asks.

"To our house," says Sasuke, "Maybe our mom can help you." He smiles.

"Thank you," she says.

X

Not long after, they arrive at the Uchiha compound. They walk through various apartments, homes and family owned stores. Was the compound always this big? Sakura can't recall.

She soon sees Sasuke's and Itachi's home come into view. She remembers the old walls and torn down appearance, but it looks nothing like that. The home is well-kept and clean. She finds herself saddened by the thought of how things are going to change.

"We're here," says Sasuke, "Come in, come in!" He drags Sakura by the arm. "Kaa-san, we're home!"

"Oh, Sasuke," says Uchiha Mikoto in all of her regality. Even though there is an apron over her clothes and flour smeared over some areas of her clothes and apron, she still looks as beautiful as Sakura was told she was. "Welcome back, my sons," she says. She shifts her eyes to Sakura and her eyes briefly flicker to Sakura's restrained wrists. "Who's this?"

"She showed up at our training grounds," says Itachi, "She claims to not remember anything."

Mikoto looks Sakura up and down and Sakura bows slightly. "She looks harmless, Itachi." She walks over to Sakura as she wipes her hands on her apron. "Let me see. Lift you head, darling."

Sakura does as told. "Oh what beautiful eyes you have," says Mikoto. "You don't remember anything?" Sakura shakes her head. The motherly woman smiles warmly. Sakura remembers her own parents. She probably won't get to see them ever again, as their daughter, that is.

"She knows basic knowledge," says Itachi.

"Awww," says Mikoto. "I'm making dinner right now. You're welcome to eat with us." She turns to Itachi, "Itachi, take her to the Sandaime. See if there's anything he can do."

"Aa," says Itachi. He cocks his head to the side, telling Sakura to follow him.

"Can I go with him?" asks Sasuke.

"Sasuke, you should stay here with me," says Mikoto, "You can be my taster."

"Okay." He sounds a little disappointed.

Sakura makes no mistake in thinking that Mikoto is softhearted. She had heard stories of the powerful matriarch – of the dark haired beauty who singlehandedly defeated armies before giving her hand to marriage. She knows that Mikoto had Sasuke stay behind because, though she kind of doted on Sakura during their brief encounter, she still has her guard up.

"Where are we going?" Sakura asks.

"To the Hokage Tower," he responds.

"Oh," she says.

Then, someone jumps out in front of her – or rather Itachi, but since she is somewhat in front of him, she is the one that jumped a little. She bites her lip to suppress a scream out of habit. Had she been in her own time, she would have punched the living daylights out of the person, but she has suppressed most of her chakra before coming here. She started storing more chakra in her seal for now too. She is hiding the seal behind a concealment jutsu too. She keeps the normal amount chakra that a civilian has unconcealed. It has been this way since even before Tsunade sent her to the past. She feels a bit weird with barely any chakra and letting it flow around her freely, since she is used to controlling her chakra perfectly at all times, but it's something she'll grow used to.

"Itachi!" says the black haired teenager.

Sakura knows that his name is Shisui. His eyes are as beautiful as they say – the long eyelashes surrounding them and the onyx color that reminds her so much of those belonging to her own teammate. His eyes flicker to her.

"Who's this?" He raises a pinky and teasingly curls and uncurls the pinky as he smiles at Itachi a little creepily.

Sakura turns to Itachi. He remains emotionless as ever, but there is a slight change in his features. Is this what he looks like when he's annoyed?

"I don't know who she is," Itachi says, "I'm taking her to the Sandaime."

"To the Sandaime? You don't think she's a spy or something, do you?" Shisui says. His hand dropping back down to his side.

Itachi shrugs a little. "She doesn't remember anything." Placing a hand on Sakura's shoulder, he continues walking again as he leads her away, walking past Shisui. Shisui doesn't seem to get the message and follows behind him.

"So what have you been up to, my favorite cousin?" he asks.

"Training, like you should be," answers Itachi.

Shisui laughs in response and then turns to Sakura. "Believe it or not, he claims I'm his best friend." Sakura smiles in response.

"I've never done such a thing," says Itachi.

"Oh really now?" says Shisui, "Would you like to ask the Sandaime when we see him? He told me you said such a thing during my last mission. What was it again – oh, 'Shisui is my best friend. I will bring him back no matter what.' It's so sweet it makes me shudder."

"Or puke," Sakura adds a little quietly.

"Did you say something?" asks Shisui.

Itachi smirks a little, but she doesn't notice this as Shisui's face is suddenly right in front of hers.

"It's so sweet it kind of makes me want to puke?" she says, a little uncertain.

He stares at her for bit longer, then he smiles and throws an arm around her shouder. "Can we keep her, Itachi? I like her already!"

Itachi sighs in the wake of his troublesome best friend's words.

"You're stupid," he says as he continues to walk again.

"So, what's your name? I'm Uchiha Shisui," he says.

"I don't know," Sakura says. "I can't remember anything."

"Shisui doesn't remember a lot," says Itachi, "He understands."

"Hey!" says Shisui.

Sakura is a little in shock. She can't respond. Did Uchiha Itachi just make a joke? She can't wrap her head around it. She still doesn't know what to do as she continues walking with the two of them. Shisui begins talking away about his day and Itachi is listening despite the fact that he looks like he isn't.

After a few minutes, she realizes that Uchiha Itachi is, in fact, not a monster. She should have known all of this already. Sasuke had made sure that Itachi was acknowledged as a hero. She should see him as so. She just has always seen him, despite Sasuke's statements, as an emotionless killer. She knows he's not emotionless, but she hasn't ever seen him otherwise – hell, she never even really met him. She should give him a chance, right? After all, she's going to be here a while.

She decides to stay quiet as the two best friends talk. What else is there to say right now anyways? Besides, who knows if their personalities are even compatible? Can she even become friends with these two? She isn't very worried about becoming Shisui's friend. He's almost exactly like Naruto, but Itachi? Itachi is a totally different person from Sasuke. Their responses to things are similar, but their personalities are completely different. Sasuke left his home to kill his brother. Itachi chose to kill his family for his home. There are reasons behind both of their actions, but they are different. Sasuke chose revenge over his home. Itachi chose home over all else.

She doesn't think she would ever be able to kill her loved ones. It's not possible. She would never do it, even if they were doing something really wrong. She can't – she could never – just look at the failure of her attempt to kill Sasuke. Even after everything that he had put her through, she couldn't kill him.

"You've been awfully quiet," says Shisui, turning to Sakura.

She smiles. "I didn't want to disturb this bromance," she says. She doesn't normally act this sarcastic to people she has just met. She can't exactly act like she normally would – it would be a little 'too old' for a twelve year old. Besides, she did act quite snarky when she was twelve – mainly to Naruto, but still.

Shisui starts laughing. "No, really, Itachi, I like her!"

Itachi just sighs. "Don't get too attached. We don't know what's going to happen to her."

"Oh, right!" He turns to Sakura, "Do you know if you're a spy or not?"

"…No?" She pauses, "Do you think the Sandaime could – I don't know – tap into my memories or something?"

"Who knows?" says Shisui, "He could have a secret jutsu for that."

"Or maybe he'll send in Ibiki-san," says Itachi, "Either way, they're going to find something to do with you."

"You make it sound like I'm not human," Sakura says.

"I apologize," he says, but his words don't sound sincere.

"Don't worry about him – he's normally like this. You saw how he acted when I said that I'm his best friend," says Shisui, "At least you haven't had to put up with him for twelve years."

"You're going to be stuck with him a lot longer than that, I hope," she says as she smiles.

The two of them don't hear the second meaning behind her words, but she means it. She won't let Shisui die. She'll change all of this. She won't let any good people die.

X

Sakura is face to face with the Sandaime Hokage. It's been a while since she has seen the warm, caring face of his. She grew up with this man watching over all of them. He watched over her home. He's one of her main role models, as he is for many others.

"So you don't remember anything," says the Sandaime, "Is that actually true?"

Sakura looks him in the eyes. "Am I right to believe that there is no one else hearing this conversation between us?"

"That would be correct, yes."

"Then, no, it's not true. I remember everything."

"Why did you tell the Uchiha's that you don't?"

"Because it's something that I've been told that I am only allowed to let you know."

"What is it?"

"It may be hard to believe, but my name is Haruno Sakura and I come from the future."

His eyes widen as he notices the similarities between the twelve year old in front of him and the seven year old still in the academy, "I can believe that, but do you have any proof?"

"I can draw out the seal needed to activate the time traveling jutsu," Sakura says, "The Godaime said that, should you ask me for proof, I should draw it out for you. She said that you had said that you created the jutsu when you were younger, but you've never had the chance to test it." The Sandaime allows Sakura to come closer and he takes the chakra strings off of her wrists. The Sandaime signals to the brush and paper to the side of him. Sakura takes both of the items and begins drawing a smaller version of the intricate pattern that surrounded her when she left her time.

The Sandaime watches carefully as Sakura draws out the seal needed for the jutsu that he is most proud to have created – and the jutsu obviously worked if Sakura is here.

"I believe you," he says after Sakura finishes. "Now…tell me why you are here." He smiles warmly. "And please tell me who the Godaime will be."

Sakura smiles. "She's blonde and loves to gamble."

"Ah, Tsunade, I can see that happening. Will she curb her gambling problem?"

Sakura laughs a little. "A little, but she still has her drinking problem."

"Should I be worried?"

"Not about that. Shishou is a great Hokage."

He smiles. "Shishou?"

"I am her apprentice," Sakura says with pride.

He laughs. "She used to say that she was my student the same way."

Sakura smiles as she recalls her beloved teacher.

"So why are you here? Is there a problem?"

"I'm here…to prevent some things from happening."

"What and when are these events?" She can tell that the Sandaime is getting ready to hear a lot of bad news. He is very serious now.

"The first one is the murder of Uchiha Shisui."

"Shisui?" His eyebrows narrow.

"Long story short…Shisui is going to try to stop Shimura Danzo from committing genocide and wiping out the Uchiha Clan. He will steal one of Shisui's eyes and Shisui will give the other eye to Uchiha Itachi. He will then somehow drown in the Naka River and Itachi will be framed for this."

Hiruzen's hands ball into fists. "Danzo…" Sakura has never heard the Sandaime sound so threatening. "When is this going to happen?"

"What is today?"

"December 9th."

Sakura realizes that Tsunade sent her exactly ten years into the past. "The fight between Danzo and Shisui will happen five months from now."

"So we have five months."

"Yes."

"Currently, Uchiha Itachi is working for Konoha by spying on his family. I'm also sure that Uchiha Shisui has been tasked with watching over Itachi."

Apparently, Tsunade had judged the time by too little. She should have sent Sakura eleven or twelve years into the past, it seems, but it's okay. She'll manage.

"Would you be able to do something about Shimura Danzo?"

"I can try."

"Until then, I'm going to have to be able to get close to the Uchiha's."

"What's going to happen to them?"

"Uchiha Madara is going to approach Itachi, if he hasn't already, and force him to choose between Konoha and the Uchiha Clan. He's going to choose Konoha, and then after Shisui's death, Danzo and the Konoha Council will order Itachi to wipe out the clan, and he'll do it."

"All because of the revolt?"

Sakura nods. "Shishou believes that both Danzo and Itachi must be stopped."

"What can we do about Uchiha Madara?"

"There really isn't much to do. I do have a small idea, however."

"What is it?"

"He has taken over Uchiha Obito's body and I believe that Obito-san is still in there somewhere. I think that Hatake Kakashi will be able to save him. If you do choose to send him on such a mission, he should be sent with a multitude of people because Madara is really strong, or at least he will be."

"So, in essence, he will be hunting a presumed dead person?"

"Yes."

She kind of hopes that if the Sandaime decides to send Kakashi on the mission, that Kakashi would get back to Konoha soon. She would like for things to stay a little the same – hopefully Kakashi can still be her sensei. She wouldn't want to change that – though, if it does get changed, she will understand.

"I will try," he says.

"Madara is probably nearby. He won't go far."

"Okay," he says, "But what do we do about you?"

"Shishou hoped for me to take the jounin exam."

"There's one next month, but since you supposedly have amnesia, I don't think the exams are necessary. All you need to do is pass the tests I give you and we can say that you have the skills to be whatever it is."

"Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Itachi are both ANBU, am I right?"

"Yes."

Crap, she has never been ANBU before. She considered applying to take the exam, but she never thought that ANBU was in her future. She always thought that she would become an expert medic, well, that is before she got this mission.

"You're not sure if you can," says the Sandaime, "I can see it on your face."

"I was only about to take the jounin exam before coming here."

"If you're Tsunade's apprentice, you've probably been ready for some time now."

Sakura smiles. "Thank you."

"When will you be ready for the test?"

"I think that the best time would be a week from now."

"Great," he says as he writes something down on a paper in front of him. "For now, what should I call you?"

"I'm…not sure. Can I let you know tomorrow?"

"Sure. Come by around this time again. I will let the two Uchiha boys know that you're harmless. Hopefully, you can stay with them. If not, just come find me, and I'll arrange a place for you to stay."

"Thank you."

"Is there anything else?"

She shakes her head.

"Well, to keep up appearances, we need to create a backstory for you."

"Since Morino Ibiki shouldn't be dragged into this, I think that you should pretend to know my parents or something, and then make it seem like it'd be better for me to not remember my past. Maybe they were killed or traitors or something."

"Great, okay." He continues writing. She has noticed that he's probably making a file on her. He doesn't write down any of the truth. He doesn't write down that she is from the past, he writes down the false information. "Well, then, I guess we're done now. You can wait outside while I talk to Uchiha Itachi. I will ask for his family to take care of you. If it gets uncomfortable there, let me know."

"That'd be perfect. Thank you."

She bows and turns around to leave the room, but she suddenly remembers something. "You wouldn't know what happens to me after everything, do you?"

"The jutsu has never been used before. I wouldn't know. I've never actually tried it out or anything."

"Oh," Sakura says a little dejectedly. She had tried not to let it show, but she can't get rid of the nagging feeling that even if she survives, nothing will ever be the same again.

"Sakura, I hope that you will be able to meet with me at least once a day, no matter how long the meeting is. Since I am the only one who knows about your situation, I'd like for you to tell me about all the future events and about yourself. I do not want your situation to change."

"I'd like that," she says, "Thank you." She bows.

"Thank you for coming to save us."

Sakura smiles. She turns around and walks to the door. Shisui and Itachi are outside.

"Come in and close the door behind you, Itachi. Shisui, please stay with her for now," Hiruzen says.

Shisui nods and Itachi steps into the room, closing the door behind him.

"I have a favor to ask of you, Itachi," Hiruzen says, "I know that you're already doing a lot for Konoha, but this isn't exactly for Konoha. It is more for me."

"What is it?" Itachi asks.

"It's about the girl outside," Hiruzen responds, "I would like to keep her identity a secret. She comes from a troubling background and she's a nice girl. I'm sure that she isn't a spy. To verify, I will be meeting her tomorrow too. Anyways, she has nowhere to stay, so I was hoping your family would take her in."

Itachi doesn't ask about her background. He isn't nosy like that. "Understood."

"I really don't want to trouble your family like this, but since she already has met you, I figure it would be for the best."

"It's no problem," says Itachi, "I think my mother would like to have her around."

Hiruzen laughs a little. "Okay, thank you."

"Can I ask something?"

"Go ahead."

"Was she a shinobi? Is she at all dangerous?"

"She was. When I met her a few years ago, she was a very talented shinobi. She was also one of the kindest people I have ever met. Her kindness is on par with yours. I'm sure she's not dangerous to your or your family."

"Okay, thank you."

"Also, I'm making her take a test to see what level she is on, since she has to make a living somehow. I am not disclosing her real name either. I don't actually want her to remember anything regarding her past."

"Just in case, what were her strengths and weaknesses?"

Hiruzen realizes that he hadn't asked her such a thing, but since she is Tsunade's apprentice, he figures, "She's a medic and has quite inhumane strength. Her weakness…I would have to say that it is her kind heart."

"Okay," says Itachi, "Her chakra doesn't seem like that of a shinobi's though."

"She's brilliant at hiding her chakra. Her chakra control is on point, from what I remember." Hiruzen hopes that none of his assumptions about her skill are off.

Itachi nods.

"Thank you, Itachi. Are there any updates on your part?"

He shakes his head. "Nothing has changed."

"Also, Itachi, learn to depend on others, will you?"

Itachi smiles. "I'll try. No guarantees."

Hiruzen sighs. "I guess that will have to do."

Itachi bows. "If we're done, I will excuse myself."

"Good work, Itachi."

Itachi smiles again as he turns to leave the room. Across from the door, Shisui is seated on the ground. He was just about to say something when Itachi opened the door. Sakura is standing next to him, leaning against the wall.

"You're staying with my family," Itachi says to Sakura.

"Really?" She smiles a little. "Thank you."

"Let's go," says Itachi. The three of them begin walking.

"Itachi, can I come over for dinner?" Shisui asks.

"Nothing has stopped you before," Itachi says.

"Your father has stopped me before," Shisui responds, shrugging a little. He turns to Sakura, "Have you met his father?"

Sakura shakes her head, "Only his mother and brother. They seem really nice."

"His father is a real hard-butt," says Shisui. "Good luck staying at their place. If you want, you can come stay with me too."

Shisui and Itachi have no clue about the fact that Sakura seriously considered staying with Shisui instead, but since she doesn't know much of his family history, that wouldn't be the best idea. Besides, even though her first goal is to stop his death, her overall goal in the end is to stop the Uchiha Massacre.

X

Arriving back at the Uchiha compound, Itachi leads them inside their house. "I'm back," he announces. He turns and faces Sakura and Shisui, "Keep her company while I tell my family about my conversation with the Hokage."

Shisui nods. "I'll show her around then."

"Good," says Itachi, "Thank you."

"No problem," says Shisui. "Come on," he says to Sakura. He takes off his shoes at the entrance. Sakura does the same with the smaller civilian sandals she had put on her feet before Tsunade did the jutsu.

Itachi enters the kitchen, "I need to speak to you and father."

"Oh, Itachi, you're back," says Mikoto. Sasuke is next to her, seated on the counter.

"Nii-san," greets Sasuke. Fugaku is already seated at the dinner table. He is reading a scroll about genjutsu – the seventeenth in a series of twenty, apparently.

"How was your meeting with the Hokage?" asks Mikoto. Fugaku puts down the scroll and looks up, his interest piqued.

"He asked if we could let the girl stay with us," says Itachi.

Sasuke doesn't say anything because Fugaku is around, but Itachi can tell that he likes this news. Mikoto also starts shining. Fugaku frowns.

"Who is this girl?"

"The Hokage said that he has met her before in the past and that it's best that she doesn't remember her past. He didn't give me any details because he'd rather her not remember her past or something. She also doesn't have a place to stay so he asked if we could take her in."

"Is she a shinobi?"

"Yes, but she doesn't seem to remember that she was one."

"Is she any good?"

"She was good at medical jutsu and taijutsu, he said."

"Weaknesses?"

"Kindness."

Fugaku doesn't smile still. He turns to look at Mikoto. She smiles and nods excitedly.

"Any objections?" Itachi asks.

"I don't like this one bit," says Fugaku.

"Oh, lighten up, Fugaku," says Mikoto, "If her weakness is kindness, we don't have a problem! I've always wanted a daughter!"

The rest of the family can't help but smile at the mother's happiness. "Okay, also, Shisui wants to know if he can stay for dinner."

"Nothing has stopped him before," says Fugaku.

It's amazing that Itachi and his father aren't much alike, but when it comes to Shisui, they have an unspoken understanding. Sasuke has always been more like their father, even though he's still young and cute, he shows signs of becoming like their father one day.

"I'll go get them," says Sasuke, hopping off of the counter.

"Oh, I can't wait to take her shopping!" Mikoto says as she claps her hands together in joy. Itachi takes the seat across from his father. His mother, after setting all the food on the table, takes the seat at the head of the table, a seat that is rarely used, and when used, usually reserved for Fugaku, but since he is already seated, Mikoto takes the seat.

Sasuke soon returns and takes the seat across from his mother, at the end of the table. Shisui rushes a little to take the seat next to Itachi. He'd rather not sit next to Fugaku. Sakura bows in front of her elders before she takes the seat by default. She had only seen Fugaku a handful of times as a child. He has always looked so strict and she can't remember a time that Sasuke has talked about his father, but she has heard that he is a very good shinobi and a very good husband.

"So do you still not remember your name, sweetie?" asks Mikoto.

Sakura shakes her head. Mikoto couldn't smile any larger.

"Can I give you a name then?" Mikoto asks.

Sakura nods and smiles.

The rest of the family think this situation weird, but interesting. Fugaku doesn't stop his wife either. He's glad that she seems very happy and that she's enjoying herself. She hasn't been very upbeat lately, especially because the Uchiha Clan is suspicious of their older son, but she seems to be a little better with the appearance of the pinkette.

"I'll let you know your name at the end of the dinner," she says, "I'm thinking."

"I apologize for her. She is very excited because she has always wanted a daughter," says Fugaku.

Sakura shakes her head. "She's very welcoming. I'm grateful."

Fugaku nods. "So I hear you're a medic nin."

Sakura stares at him in surprise. "Um, I'm not really sure." She places her chopsticks on the bowl and look at her hands. "Can I really…do that?"

"You don't remember anything at all?" asks Sasuke.

Sakura shakes her head. "Nothing."

"Come train with us tonight! Maybe we can get you to remember!" says Sasuke.

Sakura smiles. "I'm not sure about that…"

"Come with us anyways," says Sasuke, "We'll have fun!"

"Okay," says Sakura, smiling at the young boy.

She's a mystery. Itachi watches as she smiles at his brother. She is kind. There's no way that she is dangerous. He's good at identifying people and good at discerning if they are good people or not. He gets no bad auras from her. Either she's really good at lying or she's really a good person.

At the end of dinner, just when Sakura is about to get up and bring her dishes to the sink, Mikoto speaks, "Oh! I have it!"

Sakura looks at her, still holding the dishes in her hands. Everyone is watching Mikoto expectantly. She clasps her hands together in joy. "Oh the name fits too well!"

"Out with it, auntie!" says Shisui, jokingly.

"How about Hikari?" Mikoto asks. "Her hair is lighter than the rest of ours and her eyes are brighter than ours too." Her eyes flicker to Itachi. "I've been feeling down lately too. She came through this darkness like a ray of sunshine."

"Hikari," says Sakura, "I like it."

"Hikari it is then!" Shisui cheers.

The rest of the family smiles a little. Itachi gets up from his seat and Sakura stares at him in surprise as he takes the dishes out of Sakura's hands. He then walks past her to the kitchen.

Sasuke approaches her next. He holds out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Hikari."

"Nice to meet you, Sasuke-kun," she says as she takes his smaller hand in hers and shakes it. She hadn't realized that she had added the suffix to his name until after she said it, but she figures that it is okay since he is now five years younger than her. It just feels a bit weird on her tongue.

Shisui stands up next. "Uchiha Shisui," he introduces himself.

"Hikari," she responds, shaking his hand.

She smiles and walks over to Mikoto. "I love the name. Thank you."

Mikoto smiles back and pulls the younger girl into a hug. "In return, you have to let me dress you up and do your hair."

"Okay."

"Welcome to our family, Hikari-san," says Fugaku. Sakura can tell that he doesn't really like her, but because his wife is so happy that she is here, he might as well welcome her. Besides, her medical skills will come in handy at some point if she does remember them in the end.

She will be useful at some point, he figures.

* * *

So I realized that following the real Naruto timeline is pretty hard. :( This chapter required lots of research on my part, especially since I stopped keeping up with Naruto at some point. According to some sources, Itachi became a double agent sometime after he joined ANBU when he was 11 and began acting weirdly, so they sent Shisui to spy on him. So by the time Sakura arrived, Shisui is already spying on Itachi and Itachi is already spying on the clan. Anyways, I am assuming that, since Itachi becomes an ANBU captain at 13, Shisui dies around that time too - probably sometime after that. So in this story, Itachi becomes the prime suspect and followed around for six months after Shisui's death which will happen in five months from Sakura arriving. Basically, in eleven months, Itachi will massacre the clan. I hope this isn't too confusing. :) If there are any questions, please just PM me or review. My answer will be within the next chapter.

I hope you enjoyed this long-butt chapter! Let me know what you think!


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Enjoy! :)

* * *

Chapter 3

After dinner, Sakura asks Mikoto to let her wash the dishes. Mikoto, at first, rejects the offer, but with a small push from Fugaku, she retires for the night. Sakura remains in the kitchen, washing the dishes. Sasuke sits on the counter as he was before, talking with Sakura, completely unaware that she is going to be his future teammate.

Itachi had told Sasuke to bring 'Hikari' to the training grounds after she is finished with the dishes, if she still wants to go. Itachi and Shisui are already at the training grounds by now. Sakura finds it a bit disheartening that Itachi's best friend has been tasked with spying on him. It's very sad.

"So, Sasuke-kun, you're in the academy now, right?" she asks.

"Yep," says Sasuke.

"Are there any cute girls in your class?" she asks for the heck of it. She smiles a bit teasingly. Now that she is on the inside, she might as well get some fun out Sasuke while he's still cute and childish.

Sasuke shrugs. "They're all annoying."

Sakura could almost scoff. Wow, some things haven't changed. "Awww, you're no fun."

He smiles. "Well, there are two that stand out more than others."

"Oh? Who?" She is drying the dishes now.

"One has pink hair like you. She's the most annoying, but she's really kind," Sasuke says, "The other one is blonde. She's also annoying, but her grades are higher than mine."

_Ino and me_, Sakura guesses. The thought kind of makes her happy.

"You think you have a chance with them?" she asks, nudging him with her elbow lightly.

Sasuke looks away. "Ew," he says.

She laughs. "You're only seven, right?"

"Aa," he responds.

"Well, you have time," she says.

He laughs a little. "So what do you think of my brother?"

Sakura chokes on her own saliva. "W-What?"

"If you had to choose, Shisui or Nii-san?"

"This is weird," she says. She never would have guessed that Sasuke would ask such a question. He really was messed up by the massacre if he was such a bright kid before. If she manages to stop everything from happening, would he be fine?

A thought crosses her mind – what if he becomes a player?

Oh no.

"Come on, pick!" says Sasuke.

"If I had to choose, I'd choose you," she says, poking him lightly on the nose.

Sasuke has grown quite attached to Sakura in the very short amount of time that they've known each other. She just seems like such a nice person.

Sasuke laughs. "I hope you start liking my brother."

"What?"

"If you're nice like I think you are, I think he needs someone like you. He's going through a lot right now and I want to be there for him, but he won't let me in."

She smiles at how much he loves his brother. She dries her hands off and messes up his chicken-butt hair even more. "You're a really sweet brother."

"Don't call me sweet," he says as he pouts.

"Fine, fine," she says, "Well, I'm done. Want to go to the training grounds now?"

"Let's go," Sasuke says, hopping off of the countertop.

Sakura smiles and follows behind him. He's so small. She never really realized that Sasuke was only one person. She thought he was capable of everything – of saving everyone. When he was stabbe during the battle with Madara, she had thought that they were really screwed. Naruto and Sasuke made the best team, and she had put them both on pedestals, but now, looking at seven-year-old Sasuke's back, she realizes that he is just one person. Like everyone else, he is small and he can't do everything alone. Like her, like Naruto, like Tsunade – like Itachi.

They're all just human.

X

Arriving at the training grounds, Sakura realizes that it is near where she was this morning. She hears kunai clinging against each other. Likely, Shisui and Itachi are sparring nearby. Itachi and Shisui, noticing that Sakura and Sasuke are nearby, decide to act on a plan that Shisui had concocted. Itachi grazes Shisui's stomach with his kunai and Shisui begins howling in pain.

"Ow, you bastard, we weren't supposed to actually cut each other," says Shisui. "It won't stop bleeding!" He holds onto his injury with his hand and looks at it. Itachi knew exactly where to cut so that there is an abundance of blood yet barely any pain. Sakura can see that Shisui is pretending to be in pain. She can see what they're up to. She has three ways of playing this out –

Pretend to not know anything.

Heal him.

Tease them and then heal him.

She goes through everything in her head. How should she do this?

She watches, rooted in place, as Sasuke rushes towards his older cousin.

"Hikari, can you do anything?" asks Itachi.

"…I know you're faking, Shisui," she says, "I'm not going to heal you while you're pretending to be in so much pain."

"Hey!" says Shisui, pouting.

Sakura laughs. "I may not really remember who I am, but I remember what I learned."

"Can you heal him?" asks Itachi.

"I can try," she says.

"Try?!' Shisui asks, "Oh god, I'm going to die of blood loss. I hate you, Itachi."

Sakura laughs, but then, her face turns serious. "Wait." She closes her eyes and pretends to rack her brain for a solution. Seconds later, her hands start glowing green.

Itachi narrows his eyes. Where did this chakra come from? Sure, the Sandaime had said that she is really talented at hiding among civilians, but how could she remember how to summon chakra just like that? But then again, she knows basic knowledge. She probably remembers how to do everything, she just doesn't remember that she knows how to do it.

The glow around her hands goes out. She walks over to Shisui. "I think I've got it," she says, still teasing him.

"Think?!" Shisui asks again.

Sakura laughs as she kneels down in front of him, then, "Okay, I'm sure I've got it."

"I don't believe you!" Shisui says.

"Just let her heal you, idiot," says Itachi.

"Yeah, let her heal you, idiot," says Sasuke, sticking his tongue out at the older boy.

"Why you!" says Shisui. "Fine." He lifts his hand off of his injury and allows Sakura to get to work. "Sasuke, you're dead after I'm healed."

Sasuke pouts and Sakura hears Itachi laugh. She's so used to healing that she can heal small injuries like this without paying attention. She listens to Itachi's short laugh and she finds it really strange. Sure, she has kind of come to terms that he is human, but still – she never thought that she would be able to hear him _laugh_.

"Done," she says, as she lifts her hands away from Shisui's abdomen, "Good as new?"

"Wow, you're good," he says.

"It was a minor injury," she says humbly.

"Well, we won't know the extent of your skills unless you are tested," says Itachi.

"The Hokage said something about taking the ANBU exam," she says.

"He told you that?" asks Shisui.

Sakura nods. "Yeah." Shisui gets up, then he holds out a hand for Sakura to take and helps her up. "Thank you."

"No, thank you for healing me," Shisui says.

Sakura smiles as Shisui then proceeds to chase after Sasuke. "Come over here, you little brat!"

Sasuke, rather nonchalantly, runs around. Shisui isn't using all of his speed and neither is Sasuke. They are just fooling around, after all. There's no need to be that serious. Eventually, though, Shisui does catch Sasuke and, while holding him in a loose chokehold, brings his knuckle to Sasuke's head.

Sakura winds up being semi-alone with Itachi. She's not scared, but she does feel strange.

"So, the Hokage tells me that you're ANBU?" she says, starting the conversation.

"Aa," he responds, "So is Shisui."

"Oh. Do you think I'll make it?"

"The Hokage said that you were a very talented shinobi."

"I still can't believe that he knew me."

He doesn't respond. He doesn't know what to say to that.

"Want to spar?" she asks, surprising him, "Just go easy on me. Maybe as a reflex, I will remember how to defend myself or something."

He smiles a little. "Sure."

Again, just as she was surprised by his laugh, she is surprised by his smile – especially since it is directed towards her. She stands there, stunned for a few seconds, as Itachi walks across the clearing, ready to spar with her.

Sakura stands in her spot, calculating her actions in her head. She may not be as smart as he is, but she knows things that he does not. While he doesn't really know her skills, she knows some of his.

His eyes are black. He's going easy on her. "Ready?" he asks.

"I guess so," she responds.

He doesn't respond as he vanishes and, the next thing she knows, he's right in front of her, aiming a kick to her side. She can tell that the kick doesn't have that much momentum behind it. It won't hurt her much if she doesn't defend herself. Sakura ducks out of the way of the kick. He continues throwing punches and kicks at her and she continues moving backwards as she dodges, but as she stumbles slightly on the roots of a tree behind her, she ducks down and punches the ground, creating a large crater. Itachi jumps backwards to avoid the crater, but he finds that the crater is larger and growing. He ends up having to jump backwards several times to avoid it.

Itachi looks at her, a little surprised. He expected inhumane strength, not crazy, intense monster strength. He didn't expect her to be so strong. He had underestimated her – something he doesn't normally do. Itachi makes several seals with his hands and then, holding his thumb and index finger to his mouth, he blows fire out of his mouth. The fireballs are too big for her to dodge. Now he's testing her speed, and maybe her ninjutsu.

Sakura quickly forms some seals with her own hands. He recognizes them as the substitution jutsu. As the fire hits her, she turns into a log. He tries to sense her chakra, but she's really good at hiding it, it seems. He can't find her at all.

Next thing he knows, the ground below him starts rumbling. He immediately jumps away from the spot and, not a millisecond later, all that can be heard is cracking and all that can be seen is dust. When the dust clears, Sakura is standing in the middle of the disaster that is the training ground.

Shisui and Sasuke stand to the side, completely blown away by the scene in front of them. They can tell that Itachi is going easy on her, but still – the destruction that the tiny girl is capable of – it's breathtakingly crazy.

Sakura hops from huge boulder to huge boulder, getting closer to Itachi. She aims a kick at him, which he dodges. He has learned since all of this that she has crazy strength – blocking any of her attacks would be suicidal. Itachi finds himself on the defensive as Sakura throws punches and kicks at him over and over again. She watches as his black eyes turn red. He's taking this more seriously now. He dodges her attacks with no problem, but then Sakura throws a punch to his head. He dodges it, but he feels a scratch form on his cheek. He feels warm liquid trickle down his cheek. He's bleeding. How is that possible? He's pretty sure that he dodged the attack. Attack and attack after that, he gets a small scratch. Finally, he decides that this has gone on long enough. He vanishes into a flock of crows at her next attack. The crows come back together to become Itachi again.

"I think we're done for today," Sakura says.

"Aa," says Itachi.

"Eh? Why?" asks Shisui, "It was just getting interesting!"

"He's hurt," says Sakura.

"_Itachi_ is hurt?!" asks Shisui. "What kind of monster are you, Hikari-chan?"

Sakura laughs. "He went easy on me. I guess I took advantage of that unconsciously." She walks over to Itachi. "Let me see your cuts."

"I'm fine," he says.

"Just let me heal you," she says.

He sighs. Sakura sees him visibly lower his guard. Sakura walks closer and, holding her hand a little over his cheek so as to not touch it, she heals the cut on his cheek. She moves her hands according to where she knows the cuts are. He stands there, feeling quite awkward. He normally doesn't depend on anyone. After a fight, if he is injured, he usually just waits until they heal naturally. He doesn't complain about pain and he doesn't need a healer to get better; however, her chakra is soothing against his stinging cuts and soon, she is done.

"All done," she says, "Sorry for that."

"How did you cut him? I'm pretty sure he dodged all of your attacks," says Shisui.

Sakura shakes her head. "I can't tell you. It's a secret." She smiles.

"Fine, fine," says Shisui, "But if there ever comes a time when you need me to teach you something, I'm just going to say that it is a secret."

Sakura shakes her head. "Fine, fine," she imitates him.

"That was awesome!" says Sasuke. "You have to train with me sometime."

"Okay," says Sakura, "Whenever you want."

"Yay!" says Sasuke, "Then right now!"

"Sasuke," says Itachi, poking Sasuke in the forehead, "Let her rest. You can train with her tomorrow."

Sakura smiles a little and nods gratefully at Itachi. She is tired. All that running around just now really drained her. She's not sure if it's because of the fact that she is in her twelve year old body again and she's just not as fit as she is used to, but she never really had the same stamina that both Naruto and Sasuke had – only when it came to Ino did she have the energy to keep going on and on.

"It is getting late," says Shisui, "We should head back. Sasuke, don't you have school tomorrow?" Sasuke pouts in response to Shisui's comment.

"Fine," he mumbles, while holding a hand to his forehead where Itachi had poked him.

Sakura smiles. She can get used to this. They are very welcoming – and she'll make sure that Itachi never has to become the murderer that he is known for. She'll also make sure that Shisui stays alive and Sasuke stays true to the village.

X

Arriving back at the compound, Itachi, Shisui and Sasuke show Sakura to the room that she will be staying in. Apparently, Mikoto had spent the evening looking for her old clothes – some of which might be a little big for Sakura.

"Good night," says Sasuke.

Sakura smiles gratefully to the two brothers as she looks at the closet full of clothes. "Thank you and good night. See you in the morning."

Itachi nods as a response and Sasuke smiles cheerfully as they close the door behind them. Sakura goes through the clothes in the closet. There are many kimonos and many of the regular clothes look like they'll fit, but some of them look too big.

Since she'll be going to sleep, she picks out a simple t-shirt and some longer shorts from the drawers. Sakura can tell right away that these clothes are Itachi's old ones. He is slightly taller than her for a boy of twelve – which is weird since Sakura was around the same height as Sasuke when he was twelve – maybe Itachi just has the taller genes or something.

After getting all the required things to get cleaned up, she walks down the hall to the bathroom, which Shisui had showed her to before. The door is shut so Sakura knocks a few times. A few seconds later, Itachi comes out and a strong scent passes over her – a mixture of grass and rain.

Sakura bows a little out of habit. He is five years older than her, after all – though not in this time. Itachi bows a little back at her. The two don't say anything as she moves out of the way and he exits the bathroom. She silently goes in after he's gone.

X

Sakura wakes up to the subtle knocks in her door. Who could it be this early in the morning? Since she has moved out from her parents' apartment, she seldom had visitors aside from Naruto – and Naruto wouldn't have had the courtesy to knock lightly. He would have just busted in – besides, he also has the keys to her apartment. He wouldn't have to knock. She groggily slides out from under the warm blanket and gets the door.

"Yes?" she asks as she rubs her eyes, "It's too early…"

As she comes face to face with Uchiha Itachi, she remembers that she isn't at home. She is in the past and in Sasuke's old house.

"Good morning," he greets, "Shisui wants to know if you want to grab breakfast before he heads off for his mission."

Sakura shrugs slightly, "Sure."

"How long will it take you to get ready?"

"Ten minutes?"

He nods. "See you in ten minutes then."

Sakura nods, still half asleep and walks back into her room. She walks over to the closet again and pulls out a casual kimono with cherry blossoms scattered about it. It's ironic how it is decorated, yet they don't know her real identity. She quickly changes and then heads to the bathroom to brush her teeth and the like.

She is finished before her ten minutes is up. She is about to walk by the kitchen, but she sees Mikoto inside, cooking. "Good morning, Uchiha-san," she greets.

"Oh, good morning, Hikari-chan," Mikoto says.

Sakura smiles. "What are you cooking?"

"Something small for Sasuke to take to the academy with him."

Uchiha Mikoto is the perfect mother – she's caring, she's sweet, and she's as beautiful as all mothers are. Sakura can only imagine how Sasuke felt after he lost his mother. There was none there to love him as a mother could anymore.

"Done," she says as she finishes the bento box. Sakura looks at the box in awe. She's crafty with the food too.

"He's lucky to have you," says Sakura, smiling.

"No," says Mikoto, "I'm lucky to have him. He still lets me dote on him. Itachi grew out of it as soon as he could hold a kunai."

Sakura smiles, "He seems like the type."

Mikoto isn't sure which of her sons 'Hikari' is referring to, but she smiles at the way that the young girl seems to really appreciate him.

"So where are you going?" Mikoto asks, "I'm glad to see that the clothes fit you."

"Yes, thank you," says Sakura, bowing slightly, "And I'm going to get breakfast with Shisui and Itachi before Shisui goes on his mission."

"Be careful," says Mikoto.

One of Sakura's eyebrows shoot up in question. Mikoto laughs lightly as she sees the pinkette's expression. "They are going to take you to the dango shop. Order a lot because those two can really eat their dango. Don't tell them I said that, though."

The image of Itachi stuffing his face with dango is one that she cannot create without laughing because it seems so absurd.

"You're imagining Itachi eating, aren't you?" Mikoto asks. Sakura nods as she laughs. "He doesn't eat like a pig. Shisui does. Itachi just eats slowly but surely. He will eat the majority. It's his second favorite food."

"What's his first?"

"Onigiri." She pauses as she smiles, "My son is a simple boy. He may not seem like it at first, but he really is."

Sakura nods and smiles. "And Sasuke's?"

"Sasuke just loves anything that has anything to do with tomatoes," says Mikoto.

Sakura laughs. That's the teammate that she knows.

Sakura doesn't have the chance to continue her conversation with Mikoto as Itachi shows up at the entryway of the kitchen. "Ready?"

Sakura nods. "Let's go."

Itachi smiles and bows a little at his mother before turning away. Sakura bows again to Mikoto before following Itachi out.

"Take care of Hikari-chan, okay?" Mikoto calls out after them.

After they walk through the entrance of the house, the two of them walk side by side as they make their way to their destination. Sakura looks at him. "Where are we going?" she asks.

"To Shisui's house. He's probably still asleep," says Itachi.

"Do you always wake him up before a mission?" she asks.

"Most of the time, yes."

Sakura laughs a little. "What would he do without you?"

"Grow up, maybe."

Sakura is instantly struck with sadness as she is reminded of the fact that Shisui never gets the chance to grow up, and instead, Itachi is stuck with living without Shisui.

"Are you okay?" he asks, looking at her from the corner of his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she responds. She shakes the sad thoughts out of her head, "So where's Shisui's home?"

"It's the one with the blue roof," Itachi says as he points out the direction.

"It's smaller than yours," she muses.

"He lives alone," Itachi responds.

"What about his parents?"

"Passed away last year."

Sakura looks down. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"I wasn't close to his family like he is to mine. His parents were great people, though."

"I think he's really lucky to have you and your family."

Itachi smiles a little. "Aa."

Arriving at his house, Itachi reaches up to the top of the door frame and pulls down the key. He sticks the key into the keyhole and turns it. "You must break in here a lot."

Itachi laughs a little. "Aa."

She's starting to get used to his laughs and his smiles – though the laughs and the smiles aren't the kind that she's used to from most people like Naruto and Ino, she is kind of used to it because Sasuke would do the same.

As they walk inside, Itachi takes off his shoes at the door and Sakura follows suit. She looks inside the house. It's really small. On the left side of the entrance, there is a living room. On the right is the kitchen and a small table, which is like the dining room. Sakura notices that he doesn't have any pots and pans on the stove, though he does have a small pot on the table. She figures that he is more like Naruto than she had initially thought. Walking down from the entrance, there is a small hallway. There are two doors – one on each side. One leads to the bathroom and she assumes that the other leads to his bedroom. Her assumption is proven correct as Itachi opens the unlocked door.

Sakura looks past Itachi and sees Shisui rolled up in his blanket like a sushi roll.

"Hey idiot, wake up," says Itachi, nudging him with his foot.

Sakura laughs slightly at the scene. Who would have ever thought that she would witness Itachi like this? At her laugh, though, Shisui shoots up in bed. He stares at her in surprise and Sakura notices his messed up hair and laughs even more. Itachi lowers his foot back to the ground.

He looks to the side at Itachi and glares. "You brought her here?!"

"Aa," says Itachi, "We're supposed to get breakfast, aren't we?"

Shisui glares harder and then sighs. "I'll be out in a second."

"Why won't you get up now?" Itachi asks. Sakura notices that he's being a little devious.

Shisui starts blushing. "I can't."

"Why not?" Itachi asks.

"I'm not appropriate," he responds. Sakura gets the message and turns away.

"Sorry," she says as she walks down the hallway back to the living room.

Itachi joins her a few seconds later. "I'm surprised you're not blushing."

"I'm a medic," she responds, "I guess it's not something I haven't seen before."

Itachi nods. "Hn."

True to his word, Shisui joins them a few seconds later, all dressed up and proper. His hair is back to its normally messy state and he is carrying a bag over his shoulder, probably containing his clothes and whatnot.

"So what's your mission?" she asks as they exit his house.

"I'm showing some guy to his village," he says, "It's pretty simple."

"Solo mission?" she asks.

"Yep," he responds, "No problem, though."

Sakura nods. "That's good." She sighs a little in relief. She knows that his death doesn't happen until quite a bit later, but she still can't help but worry. What if, with her appearance, everything gets pushed up in time?

She doesn't know it, but Itachi notices her relief. Her response raises a few questions in his mind. Why is she so relieved? What does she know that she's not letting on? Is it just because she's genuinely worried for him? Is it something else?

"So what are you doing today, Hikari-chan?" asks Shisui.

"I have to go see the Hokage today," she responds.

"Oh, what for?" he asks.

She shrugs, "I think he wants me to give him a daily update or something."

"He sure is worried about you. I'm really curious who you were before all of this."

"Me too."

"Would you want to know?" Shisui asks, "If you had the choice."

"I don't know," she responds, "There must be a reason why he's not telling me, right?"

Shisui glances at Itachi and Itachi looks away. Shisui can tell that Itachi feels kind of bad for withholding information from her, but at the same time, he can tell that Itachi doesn't completely trust the small pink haired girl.

Shisui doesn't know how to respond, so he doesn't.

"So, where are we eating?" she asks.

"At the dango shop nearby," says Shisui.

Sakura smiles a little as she remembers Mikoto's sweet warning.

"Ah, I hope they're open," says Shisui.

Sakura only smiles in response. Itachi is still watching her, without her knowledge. She seems completely benign though. He's good at telling the difference between good people and bad people, and when it comes to 'Hikari', he can't think of her as a bad person at all.

A few minutes later, they arrive at the dango shop.

"O-ba-san," says Shisui as he knocks on the door, "Are you open yet?"

An older lady opens the door. Sakura recognizes the lady as the grandmother of the boss of the dango shop during her time. She pokes her head out and looks at Shisui.

"Oh, Shisui-kun," she says, "You're back again."

"I'm back," says Shisui.

"Come in, come in," she says, smiling endearingly, "For you, we're always open." She turns and looks at Itachi, "Itachi-kun, you're here too." Lastly, she turns to Sakura, "Oh, and who's this sweetheart?"

"Her name's Hikari," says Shisui, "She's currently Itachi's family's ward."

"Dear," says the older lady, "Welcome, is this your first time here?"

Sakura nods, "I think so."

"I will make the best dango for you!" says the older lady, "Wait a few minutes! They'll be right out!" She turns and rushes into the kitchen.

Sakura, Shisui and Itachi all sit down at a table, with Sakura sitting across from Shisui and Itachi sitting next to her. Sakura figures that it is this kind of seating arrangement either because Itachi doesn't trust her and would rather be closer to her to stop her more easily or because being next to her would make it easier for him to take her share of dango.

"So, Itachi, about that clan meeting tonight, you're going this time, right?" asks Shisui.

"Aa," Itachi responds.

Shisui sighs as he turns to Sakura, "Can you make sure he goes tonight? The meeting is at the big building with the green roof and wide doors in the front. He has to be there at 6 tonight."

"I'll try," Sakura says.

According to history, because Itachi stopped going to clan meetings, spoke out against the clan, and such, the clan got suspicious and told Shisui to spy on him.

She'll have to do more than just _try_.

Itachi takes notice of the sudden turn of emotions in her eyes. She went from lighthearted to completely serious in a matter of seconds. Why is that? Just why? She's such a mystery.

Shisui notices it as well, thus changing the whole atmosphere around the group, which leads to Sakura noticing that they've noticed.

She laughs a little nervously, "Oh, sorry," she says, "Did I zone out?"

"So, Hikari-chan, not to be rude or anything, but what do you think about when you zone out?" Shisui asks.

"I don't really think about anything," she responds, "Just staring off into space, I guess."

Shisui believes her. Itachi, however, somehow knows that it's a lie. He narrows his eyes slightly. She's suspicious – but is it because it's just better for herself to lie, to forget her allegedly painful past - or because she's actually dangerous and he's just thrown off by the fact that her hair is light and she is small like a flower?

The dango lady comes back out with a platter stacked with mountains of dango. It's quite humorous and Sakura stifles the urge to laugh. Shisui cheers with glee and Itachi, well, he's Itachi. He doesn't have much of a reaction. She places a mountain of dango in front of each of them.

Itachi turns to Sakura, "Please excuse the hideous scene you're about to see."

Sakura doesn't register that he is joking with her until Shisui digs in – then, she understands. She watches as Shisui dives into his food like a monster. She turns and looks at Itachi and sees that, like Mikoto said, he's eating his dango sticks slowly, but still at a faster pace than the regular people. She briefly wonders if he's actually moving so fast that she can't see it. She picks up her dango and eats slowly. She does like dango, but she's not a _huge_ fan – well, she is a bigger fan than Sasuke is. Her quiet teammate doesn't like anything sweet.

A few minutes later, Shisui is done with his mountain. He stares at Sakura's platter longingly. Sakura pushes the plate towards him slowly, "You can take some if you want."

"Are you sure?" asks Itachi.

"Yeah, are you sure?" asks Shisui, "As you can see, I can't control myself."

Sakura nods, "Yes, just go ahead."

"Do you not like dango?" asks Shisui, picking one of the sticks off of her plate. He knows to control himself since it's her food.

"It's not that," she responds, "I don't love it, like you two obviously do, but I do enjoy it once in a while, probably."

The two of them understand and, after Shisui is completely full, Sakura soon follows – and then, there's only Itachi and several sticks on Sakura's platter left. She watches in awe as he devours them slowly. Shisui notices the awe struck look on her face, "He may not look it, but he's actually a beast."

Sakura laughs. "I can see that." She points to the empty skewers on Itachi's side of the table – which is sufficiently larger than her pile and growing larger than Shisui's pile by the second.

It's not long until Shisui has to leave for his mission. They walk him to the gate and he leaves them alone in each other's company.

"Itachi, what time is it?" Sakura asks him.

"Almost 7."

"Really? What time did you wake me up?"

"5:10."

"When did you wake up?"

"4:30."

"Why are you sleeping so little?"

She's actually worried for him. He does die of an illness in the end after all - probably caused by stress. He's surprised by her question. No one ever asks him that. He doesn't respond.

"You should sleep more," she says, "I'm a medic. I would know." She smiles a little, but then her smile drops. "I apologize if I've overstepped my boundaries."

He smiles a little. "There are no boundaries."

Now it's her turn to be surprised. He doesn't respond to her obvious surprise. He just walks ahead. He knows that she'll catch up, after all, who else does she know aside from his family?

Sakura does indeed catch up. She asks, "So where are we going now?"

"Back to the compound," he responds, "I'll take a nap."

"Really?" she asks.

"Maybe."

"You better," she mumbles. She thinks that he doesn't hear her comment, but he does. He only smiles a little as he continues walking.

Soon, they are back at his house. Itachi doesn't announce their arrival, which surprises her. He seems like the ultra-polite type. How can he – she is suddenly reminded of the fact that he started acting strangely. She doesn't find anything strange with his behavior, aside from the fact that he's not at all what she expected him to be like, but maybe it's because he finds no need to. Which one is the real him?

"We're back," Sakura announces.

Mikoto arrives at the door a few seconds later as the two of them take of their shoes. "Are you two full?" she asks.

Sakura nods, "Very, thank you."

Itachi barely nods and then walks away. Sakura notices that Mikoto looks very worried as she looks at her older son walk away. It's so sad.

"What are you doing today, Hikari-chan?" asks Mikoto.

"I'm going to see the Hokage in a bit," she responds.

"Do you have time afterwards or before? I would like to take you shopping," she says, nearly clapping with joy.

Sakura nods. "Okay."

Mikoto is almost bursting with excitement. "Would you prefer before or after?"

"Before is better, I think," says Sakura, "You have a meeting at 6, right? I don't know how long my meeting is going to last."

"When are you going to visit the Sandaime?"

"Around 3?"

"Are you going to take a nap?" Mikoto asks.

Sakura nods. "Probably."

"I'll wake you up around noon, then."

Sakura nods again, "Thank you."

Sakura walks down away and towards her room. She sees Itachi waiting for her in front of her door. "Hey," she says, "What's up?"

Itachi looks at her. "Never mind. I'll tell you later."

"Okay," she says, eyebrows raised at his strange behavior.

He nods and then starts to walk away.

"Wait," Sakura says.

He turns back around to face her. He has an eyebrow raised.

"Rest up, okay?" she asks.

Itachi smiles a little again. "I'll try."

Sakura nods. "Okay then," she says, "See you later, then."

"Aa," Itachi responds.

Sakura opens the door to her room and walks in. She changes out of the kimono into the clothes she slept in last night. She then climbs into bed. Time to sleep. She just hopes that Itachi is doing the same.

* * *

Let me know what ya thinkkk! :)

In response to the question on whether or not little Sakura is in the academy, yes she is. So, during this time, there is a seven year old Sakura in Sasuke's class and whatnot, and there is twelve year old Sakura living in his house with his familia and all. :)


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Enjoooooy~! :)

* * *

Chapter 4

True to her word, Mikoto wakes her up at noon. "Hikari-chan? Are you awake?" she asks as she knocks on the door lightly.

Sakura opens her eyes and, rubbing them lightly, she says, "I'll be out in a second."

"Take your time," she sings. Sakura then hears Mikoto's retreating footsteps.

Sakura slowly gets up and puts on the same kimono she had on before. Combing her fingers through her hair, she heads out into the hallway again. She heads to the bathroom to finish getting ready. In a few minutes, she is out again.

Mikoto is in the living room, pouring tea for Fugaku. She's smiling and Sakura can see the love between the two of them. Sakura bows as she enters the living room. Fugaku watches as his wife's face brightens at the entrance of her new surrogate daughter.

"Ready?" Mikoto asks.

Sakura nods and smiles.

"Let's go," Mikoto says as she gets up.

"Thank you for humoring her," says Fugaku, nodding gratefully. Mikoto shoots him a slightly pouty look and he chuckles lightly.

"No, no," says Sakura, "Thank you for taking care of me."

Fugaku smiles a little and nods. Mikoto walks behind Sakura and pushes her lightly towards the door. Sakura turns to her, "Is Itachi in his room?" She slips on a pair of sandals and walks out of the front door. Mikoto does the same with her shoes and follows Sakura out. She closes the door behind her.

"No, he went out a little earlier to train," says Mikoto, who starts walking first.

That liar.

"He told me he would rest," Sakura says as she falls into step with Mikoto. Unknowingly, Sakura pouts a little.

"Oh no," says Mikoto, "He did rest a little, I think."

Sakura looks at her questioningly.

"Normally, he's out from day to night. After coming back with you, he was home until around 10 or 11," she says, "Which is an improvement." She pauses. "Thank you for caring for him so much." She smiles. "He doesn't let me care for him."

"I'm sure that's not it," says Sakura, "He probably just thinks that you have enough to worry about with Sasuke-kun."

Mikoto links her arm with Sakura's. "Sasuke's not much trouble," she says, "He's a really good child. He barely ever gives me trouble, really, neither of them do."

"You've raised them well," Sakura says, "They'll grow up to do great things one day."

She really hopes that her words come true.

"I know they will," says Mikoto. Sakura does notice a change in her disposition as she talks about this. Does she know about the rebellion? Sakura finds it hard to believe that someone as kind as Mikoto would do that.

Sakura smiles. A few seconds later, "I'm really curious about something…" she says.

"What is it?" Mikoto asks.

"I would like to hear your love story," Sakura says.

Mikoto laughs joyfully. "It isn't anything special."

"I highly doubt that," says Sakura, "You two are just so different."

"That's true, but he's good to me. He always has been."

"Is that a no, then?"

Mikoto laughs again, and shakes her head. "I'll tell you."

Sakura jumps a little up and down in joy. "Yay!"

"Okay," Mikoto says, "We were betrothed since the day I was born. For the first few years, all we did was argue. When I started going to the academy, he was already graduated. We didn't exactly hang out much or anything until my father asked him to help me train for the chuunin exams."

"So after that, you two fell in love?"

"No," says Mikoto, "We didn't fall in love until after we were married."

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah," Mikoto says, laughing, "I get that response a lot." She pauses. "We got closer, and he actually had a girl he liked back then, but then we were forced into the marriage. We were friends and all, but neither of us wanted this marriage. Eventually, with time, we grew to love each other, and soon, Itachi was born."

"How old were you?"

"Twenty-two. I was pretty young."

"That's very young!"

"Yes, but I had no choice. It was a different time." She pauses. "Besides, I'm happy with the way that things turned out. I love him and he takes care of me. We have two beautiful sons. I – I'm happy." Sakura hears a sadness in her voice as she says that she's happy. She isn't really happy, Sakura deduces. She may be content with the way that her family turned out, but she is, in no way, happy with something. Sakura would like to find out what that something is.

Soon, they arrive at shopping district. Sakura sees the Yamanaka Flower Shop. She sees Ino's parents inside. She sees a little Ino running around the store, teaching herself more about flower arranging. She also catches a glimpse of a pink head as she passes by the store, but she doesn't know if it's just her eyes playing a trick on her.

"Let's go in here," says Mikoto.

Sakura nods and Mikoto leads her into the small shop. There are many clothes – many of them are flowery, fluffy, and frilly. Sakura mentally prepares herself. No wonder Mikoto wanted more than two hours to shop.

X

Sakura is very exhausted after the two hours. She tried on so many outfits that she would rather not even look at clothes for the rest of her life. Her arms even feel tired from pulling on and taking of some of the very intricate dresses.

She doesn't even want to know how much money Mikoto spent on the clothes.

"Thank you for the clothes," says Sakura, bowing.

"No, no," says Mikoto, "Thank you for letting me treat you like a doll like that. You didn't complain at all. Whenever I try to dress Sasuke, he just complains."

Sakura laughs. "Don't worry, you can dress me whenever you want."

Mikoto could almost jump in joy. She smiles at Sakura, "Thank you." She pauses, "It's almost time for you to see the Hokage. Should I walk you to the tower? Do you know where it is?"

Sakura nods, "I can figure it out. You're probably really tired, right?"

Mikoto shakes her head, "I'm fine. I'm very energetic right now, actually."

Sakura laughs. "We have a lot of clothes, though. I don't want you to go out of your way with those bags. I'll be fine. Don't worry."

Mikoto nods. "Okay, then. I'll head back first. It's probably just going to be us tonight."

"There is a clan meeting tonight, right?"

"Yes, and normally I would attend, but since you're in our care, Fugaku said – "

Sakura shakes her head. "Oh no, I don't want to be troublesome or anything. Please, if you're needed at the meeting, I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" she asks.

Sakura nods repeatedly. "Yes, I'll be fine."

Mikoto smiles. "Okay," she says, "Then, I'll go now. You shouldn't be late for your meeting with the Hokage. I'll see you later."

Sakura waves as Mikoto heads off.

Sakura proceeds to take a leisurely stroll to the Hokage Tower. She's still early. Mikoto probably just thinks that she'll get lost along the way and take a really long time to get there.

Then, she spots a little blonde boy running through the streets. She suppresses the urge to call after him, but she chases after him once she realizes that he is being chased by someone else – a larger man with a bat in his hand. Sakura recognizes him as one of the biggest assholes in Konoha. Once she becomes a genin, the guy gets what he deserves and gets thrown into the cellars for mistreating his child and avoiding some dues of some sort.

"Get back here, devil child!" says the large man running after the seven-year-old.

Sakura realizes that he is running to the academy and that the large man is catching up. Sakura quickly runs faster. "Hey! Why are you chasing after a little kid?!" Sakura yells. If she remembers correctly, the man is large, but he is dumb. Naruto stops and turns to look too.

The guy turns around, "Hah? Who the hell do you think you are? Scamper off before I come after you too." He turns around and takes another step towards Naruto. Naruto shrinks back a few steps and prepares to turn to run.

Sakura takes off one of her sandals and aims it at the guy's head – bull's eye. "Pick on someone your one size for once!"

Enraged, the brute turns around to face her again, but, he apparently spots something behind her, which makes him forget his rage. Instead, now he looks scared.

"Run," says a voice from behind Sakura.

She recognizes the voice – Itachi. The guy runs away. Sakura sees Naruto take off. "Wait!" Sakura calls after him. She is about to chase after him, but Itachi grabs onto her wrist, stopping her. She whirls around and looks at him. When she turns around again, Naruto is long gone. "Why did you stop me?" Sakura asks. She is a little annoyed.

He senses her annoyance. "You're mad – why?"

"Why did you stop me?" she repeats.

She came to the past to save Itachi, yes, but since she is here, why can't she take away some of Naruto's pain? She had felt it all first hand during the fight with Madara and the Ten Tails – she doesn't think anyone should be put through that.

"I don't think there's a point in going after him," says Itachi, "He's a lost cause."

"What makes you say that? What right do you have – " Sakura's eyes widen as she realize who she is talking to. "I'm sorry. I – I just…"

"Do you know something?" he asks.

Sakura shakes her head.

"Why do you care so much for that kid? Do you know him?"

She shakes her head again. "It's not that."

He narrows his eyes at her. "You're suspicious, you know?"

"I know that it's weird, but I just don't think that a kid should be treated like that by an adult," she says. She watches as Itachi walks past her and picks up her sandal. He brings it back over to her and, kneeling on one knee, he lifts her leg up and slides the sandal onto her foot. He lets go of her leg not a second later. Sakura cannot deny the way her heart raced at that moment, but she quickly pushes it to the back of her mind.

"If you don't get going, you're going to be late for your meeting," he says as he stands up straight again, "I'll go after the boy."

"Wait," Sakura says as she grabs onto his arm, "What are you going to do to him?"

He raises an eyebrow. "Do you think I'll hurt him or something?"

Sakura shakes her head, "No, no, I just – I just think that you can sometimes be kind of cruel."

"When have I ever been cruel?"

"You just sometimes ignore your parents and stuff."

He doesn't respond.

"I'm sorry – I don't mean to – " She lets go of his arm.

"Don't apologize," he interrupts, "You're entitled to your opinions." In truth, he rather likes the fact that she doesn't really hold back when talking to him. At this time, there aren't many people who dare to even talk to him as she does. "I won't look for him if you don't want me to."

"What will you do after you catch him?"

"Feed him to bears, of course." She glowers at him. "What do you want me to do?"

She looks at him, kind of shocked at his response. "Can you…treat him to food?"

"Just that?"

"Yeah," she says, "He just seems kind of unhealthy."

He nods. "You should get going," he says.

Sakura nods. "Thank you, by the way. For saving me."

"Aa. We'll talk later."

"Okay," she says. "See you."

She then rushes off. Now, she may be running late.

X

During the meeting with Hiruzen, Sakura tells him of upcoming events and other things that she knows. He also fills her in on the details of her upcoming exam – in which, she'll be tested on ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu and such. In the end, they'll add up her scores in each category and, if she meets the requirements, she'll be ANBU. If not, Hiruzen says that, as long as her skills are above a certain point, he can still put her on an ANBU team as a medic. The meeting doesn't take as long as she expected. He also tells her that he has spoken to Danzo and he denied all of her claims, but that Hiruzen will still pursue this matter.

Now, Sakura is exiting the Hokage Tower. At the entrance, she spots Itachi with Naruto and Sasuke. The two kids are arguing about something and Itachi looks quite annoyed. She walks the last few steps over to them and the two little boys stop yapping. "What are you guys doing here?" she asks.

"We just finished eating," says Itachi.

"Let's go back together!" says Sasuke. He glares at Naruto and sticks his tongue out at the boy. Sakura lifts Naruto up and the little boy looks at the girl, wide eyed.

"Hi cutie, what's your name?" she asks.

"Uzumaki Naruto, believe it," he answers. He's blushing lightly.

"My name is Hikari," she says, "Did you enjoy your meal? What did you eat?"

"I loved it! We ate ramen."

Sakura glares at Itachi after Naruto answers her question. She understands that Naruto loves ramen like a mother loves her son, but still – she had said that Naruto looks unhealthy, didn't she? Why would he bring Naruto to eat ramen after she had said that? She had hoped that he would take Naruto to eat a nice, healthy meal.

Itachi shrugs a little in response. "He only wanted ramen."

She sighs and then turns her attention back to Naruto. "I see you've met Sasuke. Do you two get along?" she asks.

The two boys look at each other and then both nod their head furiously. They clearly don't get along, but because 'Hikari' is there, they pretend as if they're extremely nice to each other.

"That's good," Sakura says, despite knowing fully well that the two of them don't really get along. "I hope you two play with each other more."

She puts Naruto back on the ground. She looks at Itachi, "Would you mind if he came over to play?" Sasuke grabs onto the edge of Itachi's shirt and tugs lightly, trying to get him to say yes, he would mind, but Itachi shrugs.

"Not really."

"Yay," cheers Sakura, "Let's go, Naruto-kun." She takes one of his hands in hers. Sasuke grabs onto her other hand. He is pouting slightly.

Itachi trails behind them as Sasuke half-leads them back to the compound. He watches as 'Hikari' chats and jokes with the young boys. He questions her motive again. Does she have one? Why does she care so much for Naruto? Is she really just that kind?

The boys seem to like her very much.

Young kids have the ability to sense danger, don't they?

If they do, then, does that mean that she's really innocent?

He's being awfully nice to her in an effort to get her to lower her guards. If she's truly dangerous and just a really good liar, maybe she'll accidentally slip and give away everything – but so far, she seems clean. He's starting to find it harder and harder to believe that she's a bad person.

They all walk leisurely back to the compound. Naruto and Sasuke try to get along as they walk, but it is clear that they don't like each other very much, mainly because both of them like 'Hikari' so much. "So you two are in the academy together, right?" Sakura asks Naruto and Sasuke.

Sasuke nods and Naruto answers, "Yep!"

"Ne, Sasuke-kun, are there any girls around Naruto-kun?" Sakura asks teasingly.

"Ew, no!" protests Naruto.

"He likes Sakura," says Sasuke, giving Naruto an 'And what?' face.

"Who's Sakura?" Sakura asks, still teasing Naruto, knowing fully well who Sakura is.

"S-She's just a girl with weird pink hair!" Naruto says.

"Pink hair?" she looks to Sasuke. He has mentioned her too, after all. Sasuke makes eye contact with Sakura, but immediately looks away.

"Is she pretty?" Sakura asks, directing her attention back to Naruto.

"Y-Yes," Naruto says, pausing, "She actually looks a lot like you, nee-san."

"Like me?" Sakura asks, feigning ignorance.

"A lot," says Sasuke, "Are you sure you're not related?"

Sakura shrugs. "I wouldn't know."

Itachi, still following behind them, hears this conversation. Could it be that she is that girl's sister or something? Now he's curious. Pink is not a regular hair color – chances are they are related in some way. He'll have to dig a bit deeper. He'll also ask the Sandaime again. Sure, the Hokage trusts this girl, but how much does he really know about her?

Arriving back at the compound, Sasuke introduces Naruto to his mother and father as his classmate. Sakura feels very happy with herself, knowing that she has probably just allowed Naruto and Sasuke to become closer. Neither she nor Itachi even had to ask Sasuke to introduce him to his parents.

Sakura, however, notices the eggshells that Mikoto and Fugaku walk on around Naruto. She remembers some minor information that Tsunade had fed her – chances are that the Uchiha Clan had a lot to do with the Kyuubi's invasion years ago – something about Mikoto being the one to disclose Naruto's date of birth.

Sakura finds it hard to believe. If Mikoto and Naruto's mother truly were friends, she wouldn't do something like that – would she? She can't believe that the kind mother that Sakura knows her as would commit the ultimate betrayal.

But then again, this is only the second day that she has known Mikoto – maybe her true colors haven't shown yet, or maybe Mikoto is just very good at hiding her true feelings, like both of her sons are. Sakura watches as Mikoto offers Naruto some cake and stuff. Is it just Sakura or does Mikoto seem like she is overcompensating for something?

Hopefully, with time, she'll find out more.

For now, however, she'll just have to do with what she has. She has five months until Shisui's accident. She has six days until her ANBU exam. Should she be practicing?

Sakura sits on the couch and watches as Naruto and Sasuke play around with each other. She's not sure what kind of game they're playing, but it's an interesting one. Maybe she had forgotten about such a game – either that or she just never played. It doesn't seem like a game she would have been interested in playing as a young girly girl.

Itachi is sitting across from Sakura, seemingly observing the boys too, but it is all a facade. He is watching Sakura's every motion - the way she smiles lightly every time either Naruto or Sasuke smile, the way she looks like she wants to join them.

Sakura notices his stares and looks at him.

Itachi immediately looks away and he doesn't know why.

She looks at him questioningly, but then ignores it. She looks back to the boys, but both of them suddenly stand up. "We're going outside to play," says Sasuke.

Sakura nods. "Okay. Have fun." She smiles.

The two boys nod and rush outside.

Sakura looks at Itachi and is about to get up to go to her room, but Itachi says, "Want to play that?" He's pointing at something. Following the invisible trail exuding from his fingertip, her eyes fall on the shogi board.

"Sure," Sakura says.

Itachi gets up and brings the set in front of them. "Do you know how to play?"

"Of course."

The both of them set up their sides of the board and get ready to play.

Sakura has had tons of practice playing shogi with Shikamaru. She may not be as smart as that pineapple-haired genius, but she can hold her own against him for a while at least, Sakura doesn't know Itachi's level of intelligence in comparison to Shikamaru's, but if she were to guess, she'd say there are quite a few levels in between, just as there are quite a few levels in between hers and Shikamaru's.

Sakura makes the first move.

Itachi follows.

And back and forth it goes.

After an hour, their first game is still not over.

They're still tied.

"What time is it?" Sakura asks.

"Almost 5:40," Itachi answers, contemplating his next move.

"Don't you have a clan meeting soon?" she asks.

His whole demeanor changes at the mention of the meeting. Sakura sees him visibly shut himself off from the world. The small look of interest on his face disappears and now he just looks emotionless. It kind of scares her.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Do you have to get ready for the meeting?"

"No."

"Oh."

He doesn't respond and makes his next move. Sakura follows with her own move. "Shisui told me to make sure you make it to the meeting…," she says.

He doesn't answer.

"You should go to the meeting."

"It's none of your business," he kind of snaps at her.

She takes this as her cue to shut up. He notices the way that she seems nervous now. He recalls the way that she seemed scared that he would do something bad to Naruto. She must not have a good opinion of him, it seems. He doesn't know why she reacts like this to him. He hasn't done anything wrong to her, so why? He's curious, but at the same time, he doesn't like it. He doesn't like being feared because that means that there's something to be afraid of – it means there's a darkness in him that he doesn't want. It's a power over someone that he'd never want.

"I apologize," he says.

Sakura nods and forces a small smile. "It's fine."

He finds that he doesn't like the way that she forced her smile. It doesn't make him feel good about himself. He has always been good at everything – usually getting things with just one try, but because of his prodigiousness, his emotionlessness, and his strength, many already fear him. He doesn't like it when people in close proximity fear him, and he especially doesn't like it when people he has only been nice to fear him.

He makes his move.

Sakura does the same.

"Are you afraid of me?" Itachi asks. He makes his next move.

Sakura shakes her head in response. "It's not that." She makes her move.

"Then, what?" he asks.

She shrugs. "I don't know."

He doesn't know what to say.

"So what are you going to do instead of going to the meeting?" Sakura asks. Her voice is slightly higher in pitch and Itachi notices this. He reads it as she's nervous in asking about the meeting again. He did snap at her, after all.

"Hang out with you, I guess," he responds. His face has emotion again, Sakura notices.

Silence ensues after his comment. Itachi makes his another move.

Sakura doesn't know how to respond still, but she notices something on the board in front of her. She makes her move. "I win." She smiles a little. Itachi stares down at the board in surprise. He hasn't been beaten in the longest time. The last time he lost was when he was five years old and he lost to the Yondaime. He has heard rumors of the young Nara's intelligence. He has considered approaching the kid for a game of shogi at some point too.

This girl beat him. He cannot believe it. He rewinds all of their previous moves in his head. Where did he go wrong? Then, he realizes his wrong move. It was his last one. He had been too preoccupied with how she was scared of him that he had moved his piece to the left one space instead of to the right one space.

"Pure luck," says Sakura.

She's wrong. This game would have ended up a tie, Itachi figures. Even if he hadn't made the wrong move, their moves were evenly matched. If it weren't him who messed up, it would have to be her to mess up for one of them to win.

"No," says Itachi, "You're good."

"Thank you," Sakura says. She glances at the clock at Itachi sees her glance at the clock.

"It's six," he says. He says it just to say it.

"You're really not going to go to the meeting?"

He shakes his head slightly.

"I'm assuming I shouldn't ask why not?"

"You can, but I won't answer."

Sakura laughs a little. "Understood." She pauses. "Can I ask why your parents didn't call you for this meeting?"

"Because they know I won't go."

"Oh," says Sakura, "How long has it been since you've stopped going to the meetings?"

"A year or two?"

"Oh…well what do you want to do now?"

"You hungry?"

"Eh, you?"

He shrugs. "Not really."

"Rematch then?" she asks.

"Definitely."

X

That night, Fugaku had no words for Itachi. It probably has been that way for a while now. Sakura has barely even seen the father and son interact. Naruto and Sasuke came back all bruised and bleeding too, both of them asking Sakura to heal their wounds. Sakura can tell that they have been sparring. Sasuke probably was helping Naruto with his techniques, especially since Naruto's injuries were not as serious as Sasuke's. Sakura found this endearing. She has done some good already, it seemed.

Fugaku and Mikoto watched in awe as Sakura healed their injuries, and Sasuke was told to bathe and go to sleep not long afterwards, so Mikoto asked Itachi to take Naruto back to his home. Sakura decided to tag along. A sleepy Naruto was actually falling asleep as he was walking so Sakura offered him a piggyback ride. Naruto decided to take advantage of this, but he had no time to relish in being spoiled, because he had fallen straight to sleep on her back.

And now, it is just Sakura and Itachi walking back to Naruto's place.

"I can take him if you want," Itachi says.

Sakura shakes her head. "I'm fine, I can handle you if I have to."

He laughs. "Yeah, right."

"You've seen my strength," Sakura says.

"That's true."

"I can totally carry you on my back if I had to."

"It would never come to that."

Sakura laughs. "Yeah, I'd rather that too."

He smiles and the rest of the walk is silent. They can only hear Naruto light snoring on Sakura's back as they walk through the currently dark streets of Konoha. They're kind of just enjoying each other's quiet company. It's strange – Itachi normally doesn't feel that comfortable around strangers so soon, but he seems fine with her. Maybe it's her occasional snarky comments, or maybe it's the way that she takes care of his beloved brother and humors his doting mother, but he feels quite at ease with her. Normally, silences like these are brought upon by him because he doesn't want to talk, but no, this silence is mutual. They both want to just enjoy the walk, the darkness and the peacefulness right now.

Itachi figures that Sakura doesn't know where she is walking, so he walks a little ahead of her, leading the way to the Uzumaki kid's apartment.

Sakura, however, does know the way. She has walked a similar path millions of times before, but she figures she'll let Itachi lead the way. She had actually forgotten that she shouldn't know where he lives, but because Itachi is kind enough and trusting enough to show her to way thinking that she doesn't know the way, she's safe.

She needs to be more careful.

It's getting harder though – she's starting to enjoy her time here, after all. These two days haven't been bad at all.

* * *

Just so y'all know, I won't be writing each and every day of her journey. I'm trying to get it moving as fast as possibleeeee, but I gotta develop their relationship first, after all. :) Stay tuned for the next chapter!

Let me know what ya thinkkk! :)


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

ENJOY! SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE. Like I said, this story won't be updated regularly. :( Darn you, school work.

* * *

Chapter 5

The next day, Itachi was sent on a mission. Shisui, however, returned a few days later. He made a point to come over and keep Sakura company while Itachi was gone. Sakura had apologized and told him that she wasn't able to get Itachi to go to the clan meeting, but Shisui said that he hadn't expected her to be able to get him to go anyways. It was just worth the shot.

Now they're sitting with Naruto and Sasuke at Ichiraku Ramen.

Naruto and Sasuke are arguing again. Over the past week, they've gotten used to arguing around Sakura, especially since Sakura seems to like it better when they fight over trivial things.

"So how did your test go?" Shisui asks.

"It was fine," Sakura says, shrugging. Rolling her ramen around her chopsticks, she takes the noodles into her mouth. She recalls the test – it was simple enough, but at the same time, hard as hell. There was a written portion, which she could ace in her sleep, but the actual physical portions of the exam were tough. Kakashi had always thought that she would be the genjutsu type, and maybe she could have, but because she trained under Tsunade, she had begun to neglect her genjutsu training a little. She probably did only okay on that portion. Taijutsu – she aced as well. She had to spar with her proctors, whom she believes to be Anko and Kakashi under the ANBU masks. She did well – supposedly. They seemed amazed by her strength, and she takes amazement to be a good thing when it comes to her physical prowess. Lastly, the portion she did the worst on – ninjutsu. Unlike Kakashi and the rest of them, she never was a ninjutsu user. She knew some and used them to an extent, but she never depended on them. She is more of a close range fighter.

The exams were pretty informal. Some ANBU were called in to go against her and the Sandaime had said that the scores would be added up and if the total turns out to be above a certain number, she'll be in ANBU. He also had said that she'll probably get in because she is a medic who can hold her own pretty well.

"There's an opening on my team, you know?" Shisui asks, "If you make it into ANBU, you can join me." He smiles cheekily.

Of course she knew about the opening. The Sandaime had said that the third member on Shisui's three member team had quit because he got really annoyed every time Shisui was around. Sakura isn't sure if that is true, however. The Sandaime has taken quite a liking to making up white lies, much like how Kakashi usually makes excuses for his tardiness. She figures that Kakashi must have gotten this habit from Obito, as she has heard, and since he wanted to be Hokage, it wouldn't be surprising if he imitated this trait from the Hokage. It's strange though – from what she remembers, the Hokage was a fairly serious man. He just doted on Naruto a little too. She had never been close to him though – so she wouldn't know. Also, this is another time, so maybe he changes throughout time – maybe the massacre affects him too.

"I don't know if I'd want to," says Sakura, sticking her tongue out at him.

He pouts. "Fine."

Sakura laughs. She knows that she'll be put on his team if she were to make it, which she's fairly certain that she will.

"What are you planning on doing for the rest of the day?" Shisui asks her.

She shrugs. "I don't really have any plans."

"Let's spar, then," he says. He smiles cheekily. "I haven't gotten the chance to spar with you yet, you know?"

"Sure," says Sakura, smiling in return.

He pays the bill, treating Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto to the meal. During their walk to the training grounds, Sakura suggests that Shisui get to know Naruto better.

"Why?" he asks.

"I feel like you two have a lot in common," she says.

Shisui doesn't know whether or not to be insulted by her statement, but seeing as she doesn't seem to have any bad intents, he figures he can't be mad. Besides, thinking over it, he actually does have a lot in common with the kid. Sure, the kid is an outcast, but that's because of conditions that he couldn't control. Naruto, like Shisui, doesn't have parents. Naruto, like Shisui, wants to be Hokage. Naruto, like Shisui, never asked for his conditions. The kid isn't a jinchuuriki by choice.

"Yeah, we do," Shisui responds.

Sakura is surprised by his response. For a second there, she had thought that he would be mad at her for comparing him to an outcast, but she should give him due credit – Shisui is just as thoughtful as Itachi. The two of them strive for equality, though in their own ways with their own loyalties.

She smiles, "Thank you."

"Why are you thanking me?"

"For understanding."

"You really care about this kid," Shisui observes.

"Of course. He's just a kid, just like Sasuke-kun. He doesn't deserve all of this. He deserves a better life." They both do, she leaves unspoken.

"You're really a mystery, Hikari," Shisui mumbles quietly.

"Hm? Did you say something, Shisui?" Sakura asks.

He shakes his head. "No. I didn't say anything." He turns, "Hey, brat, come here!"

Sakura watches as Sasuke walks over to his cousin. She tries to suppress her laughter, but it doesn't work. She cracks up laughing, holding her stomach. Shisui looks at his youngest cousin with an 'are-you-retarded?' look. "I meant the other brat," Shisui says. Naruto points to himself, as if asking 'me?' Shisui nods and Naruto joins Shisui as they walk.

Sasuke blushes and pouts in response. Sakura walks over and messes up his hair lightly "Come on, brat. You're stuck with me for now."

Sasuke only pouts more – although to the untrained eye, he still looks fairly the same.

It's adorable, Sakura thinks. She looks at Shisui and Naruto walking ahead of them. She wonders what they're talking about, but it seems like they're having quite a conversation.

Meanwhile, Shisui is trying to get Naruto to lower his voice. Sure, there's quite a lot of distance between the two of them and Sakura and Sasuke, but still, this isn't a conversation that he'd like for others to hear.

"She's my woman, you know!" Naruto states, yet again, "You can't have her!"

"Hey, hey," says Shisui, "You can't hog Hikari too. Sasuke told me about Sakura-chan."

"No!" Naruto protests. "If I can't have Hikari, you can't either!"

"Then who will?" Shisui asks the little boy. He makes motions with his hands to get the kid to lower his voice, but he doesn't get the hint. Shisui glances back at 'Hikari' and Sasuke – they don't seem to hear anything. 'Hikari' smiles and waves. Shisui nervously waves back.

"Don't flirt with my woman!" Naruto cutely states again.

"She isn't your woman," Shisui says, "She's going to be mine."

"No she's not!" Naruto protests, "You're not good enough for her."

"Oh, so who is?"

"Sasuke's brother, at least."

"Hey now, what does he have that I don't?"

"He's ANBU!"

"I'm ANBU too!"

"Really? You don't seem like it."

This little kid is killing his self-esteem right now. Shisui could almost cry inside.

"Why not?"

Naruto shrugs. "I guess I just like Itachi more."

"Why? But you and I have more in common," Shisui sings.

Naruto shrugs again, "Which is why she only needs one of us."

Shisui gives up. He doesn't know how to win against this kid. He has a response to everything, or maybe it's because Naruto knows how Shisui acts. He knows how to respond because it's like responding to himself.

"You two sure are getting along well," says Sakura, catching up with them. Sasuke is next to her, pretty emotionless right now, though he is holding Sakura's hand.

Both he and Naruto have grown attached to the girl in the week that she has been here. They both don't really understand why they like her so much, and while Naruto figures that it's because she's one of the first people to show that she cares, Sasuke thinks that it's because she's one of the only people that don't expect anything from him – she treats him well because that's just how she is.

Shisui glares at Sakura playfully. "No. This kid is threatening me."

Naruto smiles like an angel and Sakura shoots Shisui a look. "There's no way he'd threaten you. Look at him." Shisui looks at Naruto and gasps at the kid's tactic. He really needs to watch out for this kid – he might actually kill Shisui and walk away with clean hands.

Sakura and Sasuke laugh a little, but before they can do anything else, someone appears in front of Sakura. "Hikari-san, the Hokage would like a word with you."

"So soon?" Shisui asks the ANBU member.

The masked person nods. Sakura smiles to the two kids and Shisui. "Well, I have to go. I'll spar with you next time. Play nice," she says to all of them. The three of them pout simultaneously and Sakura only laughs. She turns to Shisui, "Make sure Naruto gets back to his place safe, okay?"

Shisui nods. "See ya. I'll look for you later."

Sakura smiles. "'Kay."

She proceeds to follow the ANBU as he hops from roof to roof towards the Hokage Tower. It's very soon – they've come to a solution so fast. She gets somewhat nervous suddenly – what if she didn't make it? Doesn't the board usually debate longer on people?

Arriving at the Hokage Tower, Sakura climbs up the steps to the Hokage's office instead of appearing at the window, which many people seem to prefer. Sakura, however, has always preferred taking the stairs – not only because Tsunade hated it when people arrived unannounced, but because it reminds her of the simpler days – it always did.

She knocks on the door.

"Come in," says the Sandaime. Sakura pushes open the door and walks in. Seeing Sakura on the other side of the room, he smiles warmly. "You've arrived quickly."

"Of course," Sakura responds. She pauses, "So? How did I do?"

"Better than many," he says, "Though you do need help on ninjutsu and genjutsu, I can see that you have a talent for genjutsu and, as for ninjutsu, that's something we can work on if needed. Your medic skills will come in handy on whatever team you're put on and you'll be in high demand because of it."

"So I made it?"

"Yes. Congratulations, you've made ANBU."

A smile breaks out on Sakura's face. She's genuinely happy. To make ANBU? It was never something that she actually saw for herself. She thought that Naruto and Sasuke would eventually take the test, but as for her, she always thought that she would just end up working in the hospital with a minimum of field missions – much like how Shizune works, but to know that she can make it and that she is quite an asset, it's a good feeling.

"What team will I be placed on?"

"Unless you are requested, you'll be on Shisui's team. Including you, it will be a three-man team. It is also one of the only teams with two females."

Sakura knows that the other member is Mitarashi Anko. She also knows that, in a few months, Anko will be replaced with Inuzuka Hana. Sakura knew previously that Inuzuka Hana would be the other teammate. She had known before she received this mission, actually. Everyone had known that the fierce, young veterinarian was on the same team as the tragic Uchiha Shisui – everyone had known how crushed she was after hearing about the alleged suicide.

Sakura wracks her brain, trying to remember who was supposed to take this position – after a brief second, she remembers that the position was never filled. Sakura wonders if it was because on Danzo's meddling that the position was never filled. After all, in five months, he will attack Shisui. Hana will be fairly new in the team and not be completely aware of everything and with the other position vacant, Shisui will have less people around. He'll be an easier target – hopefully her arrival has changed that.

"Mitarashi Anko is the team captain," says Hiruzen.

Sakura nods in understanding.

"Tomorrow, I will assign you three on a simple escort mission." He holds up a folder and Sakura walks over and takes the folder in her hands. She looks through the details – it seems simple enough. They're just supposed to escort Hyuuga Hinata to Kumogakure.

"Why are they sending Hinata to Kumogakure?" Sakura can't help but ask. From what she remembers, Kumogakure tried to kidnap Hinata during her third birthday. Why would they send her there? Did this actually happen in the past?

"Because there is still a lot of bad blood between the Hyuuga's and Kumogakure, due to the previous incident," Hiruzen explains, "They hope that, in sending Hinata there to meet the First Raikage's great-grandson, the two children will become friends and will wed one day."

Had Hinata really gone through with this? It's stupid, Sakura thinks. Kumogakure wants the Byakugan – why would they even propose sending Hinata there to wed some unknown kid? This is ridiculous. Hinata must be hurt that her family would do this. Sakura remembers that she had never really been there for Hinata – the only person that really was there for her was Kurenai-sensei. She must have been lonely – maybe that's why she loved Naruto so much – because he had a freedom that she didn't have. She could have gotten that freedom, had Neji lived and succeeded her father as head of the clan in a change of rules, but after Neji's death, Hinata was doomed to be trapped forever. Sakura remembers seeing the quiet girl days before she left their time – Hinata was quiet and kind as ever, but there was a sadness to her. Neji was older and he was more talented. Hinata had respected him to the ends of the world and back. Neji looked out for Hinata and encouraged her to do all that she wanted in life. With his death, her main source of motivation disappeared too.

"You seem surprised by the mission," Hiruzen says.

Sakura nods. "I never knew that Hinata had to go through this stuff."

"You can never know everything that happens to everyone," Hiruzen says, "Some things are none of our business."

Sakura looks down and nods. He's right and Hinata doesn't wind up marrying some random guy. She ends up staying in Konoha with her beloved Naruto. Sakura supposes that the arranged marriage doesn't happen.

"I will call you and your team in for a brief description in the morning," says Hiruzen. He smiles lightly and then, "I will also introduce you to your team tomorrow, so be here a little earlier than 10 AM."

Sakura nods, "Okay, will do."

"I'll see you tomorrow, then." Sakura nods and bows.

"See you tomorrow, Hokage-sama." Sakura then turns to leave the room.

When she opens the door, someone is on the other side. She finds herself staring up at Itachi's face in surprise. "Hey," he greets. He smiles politely. His ANBU mask is to the side of his face and his clothes look rather dirty.

"You're back," she says, smiling a little in return.

"Oh, Itachi-kun," says the Sandaime. "You're back earlier than expected."

"Aa," he responds, bowing slightly to the Hokage.

"Everything went well, I assume?" Hiruzen asks.

"Aa," Itachi responds again.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Hikari-chan," says Hiruzen, smiling slightly. Sakura nods and as Itachi moves out of her way, Sakura exits the room.

Itachi turns to Sakura, "Wait for me. Let's go eat."

Sakura nods and smiles. "Okay."

Itachi closes the door behind him and Sakura awaits his exit from Hiruzen's office. She stands outside, leaning against the wall opposite of Hiruzen's door.

A few minutes later, the door opens and Itachi walks out. He looks at Sakura. "I apologize for the wait." He smiles a little. "Let's go."

"Okay," Sakura says, smiling.

"So how is everything?" he asks as they start walking.

"Good," she responds, "You?"

"Hn," he responds. "I hear you've made ANBU."

Sakura smiles and nods. "Just today."

"Congratulations."

"Thank you."

"How are my little brother and my stupid cousin?"

"Same as five days ago when you left."

He laughs a little. "Feels like it's been a while."

She looks at him. Is there another meaning behind his words? She feels as if there is. He notices her staring and he smiles a little. Sakura can tell that it's fake.

"You shouldn't do that," she says. "A fake smile is easy at first, but over time…"

"I've been doing this all my life."

"It doesn't get hard for you?"

"It's easier."

"You're strange."

"I guess," he responds, shrugging slightly.

Sakura silences for a few seconds. "I honestly think that a smile should come from the heart. Fake ones are honestly kind of scary."

"Are you saying I'm scary?"

Sakura nods. "Kind of."

He laughs. He briefly wonders if that's why 'Hikari' thinks that he's evil. Is that why she didn't trust him with Naruto? Is that why she sometimes looks terrified of him, as if she knows something about him that he, himself, doesn't? Could it all be just because he fakes his smiles?

"Have you never faked a smile?"

Sakura shakes her head. "I have, many times." He silences at her honesty. She looks to him.

"I just feel as if it depends on the company you're with. I don't really see why you have to fake a smile with me. You don't have to answer my questions if you don't want to."

He shrugs. "Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead." He watches as she smiles a little. It's a warm smile.

"A fake smile – when would it be appropriate to use if not to avoid questions or avoid suspicion?" he asks.

She looks up at the sky in thought. "I guess…depending on the company or the situation…" she says, "I think it's proper during times of high tension – to avoid conflict, times like those."

Itachi nods. "I guess I can't disagree."

"When do you think a fake smile is appropriate?" she asks.

"Any time it's needed," he says, "I'd be lying if I said that it hasn't gotten me out of some bad circumstances."

"I guess I can't disagree with you either," she says.

He lets out a genuine laugh, but it is short. Their conversation is over, with neither of them knowing what to say. The silence isn't uncomfortable and the two of them are kind of surprised by the lack of discomfort. Sakura zones out as they walk. She thinks over her mission for tomorrow. She has to get closer to Shisui in order to keep him safe. Just as she would stay close to Naruto to keep him safe, she has to stay close to Shisui just the same.

"We're here," she hears Itachi say as he stops walking.

She stops walking. Oh yeah, they hadn't said where they were going. Sakura sees a restaurant that she doesn't recognize. She registers that they are in the Uchiha compound, though.

"Where are we?" she asks.

"It's a family owned restaurant. Some relatives own the place."

"Oh?" she asks.

"Since you are staying with my family, I think it best that you meet the best of our clan."

Sakura smiles, "Well, what are we waiting for?"

Itachi chuckles and opens the door for Sakura. Sakura steps inside and Itachi follows.

"Good evening, Itachi-kun," greets a black haired, black eyed woman. Itachi smiles and bows at the older woman. Following his example, Sakura does the same. "Oh? Who's this?" the woman asks, motioning to the younger girl.

"She is my family's ward for the time being," says Itachi, "Hikari."

"Oh what a beautiful name," says the older lady. She takes one of Sakura's hands into her own and shakes it. She looks at Sakura and Sakura could almost run in fear that the woman knows her true identity. The older woman seems wiser than she should be.

"Mikoto-san chose the name," says Sakura.

The older woman smiles knowingly. She then shows the two of them to a table inside the establishment. The two of them sit down and the woman places two menus in front of them.

Itachi opens the menu and begins looking for what he wants to eat. Sakura does no such thing. Itachi raises one eyebrow at her.

"I'm not hungry," says Sakura, "I ate with Shisui and the kids before."

"The kids?" Itachi says, "We are kids too."

Sakura laughs. "You know who I mean."

Itachi smiles, "You should order something to drink then."

Sakura shrugs. "I guess," she says as she opens the menu.

Itachi watches as 'Hikari' reads through the menu, looking for a drink. She doesn't act twelve – she doesn't act her age at all. She's also stronger than any girl he has ever met. She's unlike any girls he has ever met. She intrigues him. He now knows that she can be trusted – while he was away, she made no move to harm his family. She has also become ANBU. The Hokage trusts her that much – why shouldn't he? She doesn't threaten his family nor him. She is as trustworthy as they come.

He can trust her.

X

Walking back home, Itachi and Sakura don't speak. They walk, enjoying the silence and the evening air. The sky is darker now, no longer blue, but rather yellow, orange and red, and the breeze is wonderfully calming. Sakura is suddenly reminiscent of her past – her childhood. She could remember the smell of the flowers in the breeze as Team 7 walked throughout the village together – the days when everyone was content, the days when everyone thought war was far beyond the horizon.

"What are you thinking about?" Itachi asks suddenly.

Sakura looks to him, "Nothing, really." She pauses, "What about you?"

"The day that the Kyuubi attacked Konoha," Itachi answers.

Sakura is surprised by his response – actually, she is surprised by how honest he is.

"That was...seven years ago, yes?"

"Soon after Sasuke was born."

"Why are you thinking of that nightmare?"

"It was the day I realized how much I had to lose."

"We all have a lot to lose," Sakura muses, "I don't remember much, but I know that there were people I cared for and was willing to give up my life for. No one cares for nothing – no one is untouchable and even the loneliest of loners have strings they hold onto. Even now, I can't see myself letting anything happen to anyone I've met." She pauses. "Including you."

"You're not a loner," he says, raising an eyebrow, "Pretty far from it."

A light laugh escapes her lips. "I'm not saying I'm a loner, I'm just setting myself as an example."

He smiles as she jumps onto the large rocks on the side of the sidewalk, serving as the border between the cobblestone roads and the greens of the grass and other plants. She raises her arms as she balances herself on the small path. Normally, she seems weighed down by her thoughts and other things. Unlike previous moments, 'Hikari' seems so carefree. She seems free.

As she steps off the rocks, he sees weights land onto her shoulders again. Itachi wonders what these weights consist of, but he doesn't wish to ask. He's sure that she would change the topic as he has before, so he just settles on saying this, "Worries don't suit you."

"What do you mean?" she asks.

He only smiles in response.

X

In the morning, Sakura gets up early. After she is finished packing for her mission and all else that most people do in the morning, she sits with Mikoto and Fugaku in the dining room. Itachi and Sasuke were out training already by the time she was awake.

Just as Sakura is about to leave, Mikoto walks over to Sakura and hands her a package. Sakura looks at Mikoto in surprise. "What is this?" she asks.

"Shisui will get hungry. I hope you guys will eat this while you rest tonight," says Mikoto.

"Thank you," Sakura says as she smiles at the woman. "You're very kind." Sakura places the package into the bag on her back.

Mikoto smiles. "Take care. Come back safe."

"Thank you."

With that, Sakura leaves the Uchiha home. She passes by the restaurant that Itachi brought her to last night and sees the older woman that owns the place. The woman smiles and waves. "Good morning," the woman says, "Are you going on a mission?"

Sakura nods. "Yes," she says, "I really should be going. I'll come by again when I come back."

"Yes, yes," says the woman, "Bring Itachi-kun too."

Sakura smiles. "Okay!"

"Take care, Hikari-chan," says the woman.

Sakura waves as she moves away from the older lady. In a few minutes, Sakura arrives at the Hokage Tower. She is early by a few minutes and she is the first one there. Hiruzen smiles in greeting as he works on some papers. She takes a seat in his office and awaits her teammates. A few minutes later, Shisui comes through the window behind Hiruzen.

"How many times have I told you to use the door, Shisui?" Hiruzen asks, a little jokingly as far as Sakura can tell. Shisui humorously scratches the back of his head and laughs sheepishly.

"Next time, Hokage-sama," says Shisui.

The Sandaime sighs and shakes his head. "Well, Shisui, you know S – Hikari," he says, almost blowing Sakura's cover, "She is filling the empty position in your team."

"I knew it," says Shisui, smirking. "Where's Anko-san?"

"Anko won't be able to make it," says Hiruzen, "Apparently, she is sick."

"So it's just us two?" asks Sakura.

Hiruzen shakes his head. "The temporary third member of this three-man team will be arriving shortly. Take a seat and wait." Before Sakura can sit, Hiruzen remembers something – "Hikari-chan, this is for you." He holds a covered item out for her. Sakura walks over and, taking it from the Sandaime's hands. She begins unwrapping the item and finds herself staring at her own ANBU mask.

Her mask is simple – there is a green diamond shaped mark on the forehead and three pink triangular markings on both sides of the cheeks. The mask isn't shaped or based on an animal like other masks and she understands that it is because she isn't like any animal – she is more of a flower. She appreciates that the mask is simple, though. She quite likes it too. The diamond mark on the forehead reminds her of home.

"I love it," says Sakura, "Thank you."

Hiruzen smiles.

"Let me see, let me see," says Shisui, walking over to Sakura. He pulls out his own mask and shows it to Sakura. It is in the shape of a crow. Most of the mask is black, also quite different from other masks that Sakura has seen before. The rings around the eye holes are red, possibly alluding to his sharingan, Sakura observes.

"Yours is very different," says Sakura.

"Yeah, I was surprised when I received it too," Shisui says, "But I like it."

Sakura smiles. "I like it too."

The two of them take seats across from the Hokage as he works. The two of them whisper back and forth, jokingly. "Do you know what our mission is?" Shisui asks.

Sakura shakes her head, despite knowing fully well what the mission is. "No, I don't."

"Do you think he can hear us?" he whispers.

Sakura shrugs, "Who knows? I assume you have an answer."

"He's really old – he probably can't."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, just look at all of those wrinkles – "

"I can hear you two," Hiruzen interrupts. Sakura wonders if that vein popping on Hiruzen's forehead she sees is all in her head or not. She watches as Shisui smiles deceptively angelically. "Please just be quiet and wait for the third member. He'll be here soon."

Not a second later, a poof is heard behind the two preteens. Sakura knows the poof. She's heard that poof dozens of times before. She doesn't have to turn around to know who it is.

"Ah, Kakashi-kun, you're finally here," says Hiruzen.

"I'm not late," says Kakashi, "You're all just early."

Hiruzen shakes his head. "Kakashi-kun, this is Hikari," he introduces, "She's new." Kakashi holds out a hand towards the pinkette.

"Nice to meet you, Hikari," says Kakashi as he shakes her hand. Sakura smiles at her unknowing sensei.

"Please take care of us," she says as she bows slightly.

"Alright, let's get down to business," says Shisui excitedly.

Hiruzen pulls out the same folder he had showed Sakura the day before and with all of the details cleared, he says, "You will go pick Hyuuga Hinata up from the Hyuuga compound in half an hour. You will set out as soon as possible."

The three of them nod.

"I expect you back in a week," he says, "I also expect no tough obstacles." He smiles at Sakura, knowing that she will not allow anything to happen to Hinata.

After exiting the Hokage Tower, Kakashi leaves the two preteens, citing that he has business to attend to. Sakura does not want to know what the twenty-one year old is doing in his free time – but if she were to venture a guess, she would say that he is reading that disgusting book he loves so much.

Sakura and Shisui walk towards the Hyuuga compound at a slow pace. They have quite a lot of time, after all. "Did you eat yet?" Sakura asks.

"Some onigiri," Shisui responds.

"Mikoto-san made us some food for later," she says.

"Really?" Shisui asks, practically jumping in excitement.

Sakura nods. "We'll eat it later." Sakura pauses, "Did Itachi wake you up this morning?"

Shisui nods, "Of course. He always does, otherwise I'll sleep until noon."

"Don't I already know that," Sakura says, not exactly asking a question. She already knows Shisui's sleeping habits pretty well. During the few days that Itachi wasn't there, Shisui would make plans to eat breakfast with her, but he couldn't wake up early enough to call it breakfast when they did eat.

Shisui laughs sheepishly in response.

"You and Itachi seem very close," says Shisui suddenly.

Sakura looks at him in surprise, "Really? I don't think so."

"You ate together last night, didn't you?"

"Yeah, we kind of ran into each other."

"Well you do live together." He laughs. Sakura can tell that the laugh is fake.

"What's this about, Shisui?"

Shisui laughs nervously. "Just an observation," he says.

"Okay…" Sakura says. In her mind, however, Sakura is going mad. She is seventeen, it's not as if she doesn't know anything about love and crushes and such – she's seen enough of all of it and she's been through all of it. She knows when someone has a crush.

Shisui has a crush on her.

Well, damn it, Sakura curses in her head.

* * *

Let me know what you thiiiiink~~ :)


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

* * *

Chapter 6

Sakura wakes up to a pounding head. She tries to recall what happened – why exactly is her head pounding anyways? The last thing she remembers right now is when she, Shisui, Kakashi and Hinata took a break to eat. Sakura had taken out Mikoto's bento boxes, they all ate, got ready to go and then – blank. _Blank_. How is that possible? She strains to open her eyes, and when she does open them, she doesn't recognize her surroundings.

She doesn't see Shisui or Kakashi around. She does, however, see Hinata. Hinata is unconscious too. Sakura finds herself getting angry that they knocked out such a little, innocent girl. She tries to move, but finds that she can't.

Seriously, what the hell happened?

"Shi…sui?" Sakura manages to utter out. "…Ka…kashi…sensei?"

No one answers her.

She can't do anything. She looks around at her surroundings again. She's in a jail of some sort. She realizes that she is not restrained in any way, yet she can't move. There must be a seal on the room, Sakura figures.

"Hinata…" Sakura says. Her voice is still weak. "Hinata, please wake up."

Hinata doesn't move.

Well, damn.

She doesn't expect a child to be able to awake so easily.

This better not be another kidnap attempt on Hinata. Sakura can't remember this actually happening in the past.

If it didn't…Hinata might not be the target. If her appearance has caused this to happen, the targets are either Shisui or herself, and she's willing to bet that it's Shisui.

Before another thought could be formed in Sakura's head, the roof above her explodes.

Sakura hurriedly throws her body over Hinata's. With the room destroyed, Sakura figures that the seal broke. Light shines onto the room and she realizes that the room wasn't so much of a room than a wooden cage in a bigger, darker room.

"Hikari!" Sakura hears Kakashi yell. Sakura hurriedly picks Hinata up and jumps out of the way of the falling rubble.

"Where's Shisui?" Sakura asks as she lands on her feet next to Kakashi. Hinata is still unconscious in her arms.

"They have him somewhere else."

"Why weren't you caged?"

"Because I woke up before they put me in a cage."

"Well, aren't you just the epitome of perfection," Sakura mumbles.

Sakura looks at Kakashi's opponent. He's small - very small. _Sai_, Sakura thinks. The opponent does resemble her friend - with straight black hair and sickly pale skin. He is wearing a mask over most of his face - not an ANBU mask, but a mask nonetheless.

"Where is our teammate?" Sakura demands.

"He's being taken care of," the boy responds.

"I'll take care of him," Sakura says, "Take Hinata and go find Shisui, please."

Kakashi, although hesitant, nods and, taking Hinata from Sakura's arms, disappears with a poof.

"You don't have to do this," Sakura says, "This is a crime."

The boy doesn't respond.

"If you stop this right now, I'll help you. I'll make sure you find the right path."

He still doesn't respond.

"You don't have to go through all of this," she says. Thinking over history, she remembers that he eventually will be forced to fight against his 'brother'. She figures she'll use this. "You don't have to fight your brother."

As expected, her statement catches the boy's attention.

"You don't have to finish this training," she says. She deliberately leaves out her knowledge of Danzo. If he were to find out that she knows about him, she'd be in danger and she isn't sure if she'd be able to win in a fight against the delusional old hack. "You can stop torturing yourself. You can draw all you want and be who you want to be."

"How do you know so much?" The boy asks. Sakura sees him draw his sword.

"Because I know you," she says, "Sai."

"Sai?"

"Your name is Sai."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I just do."

Sakura remembers the day that Tsunade had asked Sai if he wanted to know his birth name. Sai, however, declined. He said that Sai was his name. Sai is the name that everyone knows and loves his unemotional asshole self for, though, of course Sai hadn't described himself that way.

Sai sheathes his sword again.

"Konoha can become a home to you," she says, "At last." She pauses, "You don't have to hide your emotions anymore. You can be free."

"What about my brother?"

"Of course I'll help Shin too."

"How do you know his name?"

"Because I know you."

Sai watches as the older girl smiles warmly. He had known that the last step in his training was to fight his brother, Shin. He had known that it was all to eliminate weakness in his life. To be the perfect soldier, he will have to eventually fight Shin to the death.

He doesn't know if he should trust this girl.

What if she's just a spy for Danzo?

What if every promise she is making is empty? What if she's lying? What if -

Is he willing to take the risk?

Sai stands down.

"Uchiha Shisui is with my brother two miles north from here," the words come out before he is even finished making up his mind.

"Come with me, Sai" Sakura says, holding out her hand.

Sai, fully aware that he has betrayed Danzo already, takes ahold of Sakura's hand. She's warm. The little boy holds her hand tightly as she leads him towards his brother.

He can trust her, right?

X

Arriving to where Sai's brother is, Sakura watches as Shin is seemingly about to carve out one of Shisui's eyes. Shisui is currently unconscious. Letting go of Sai's hand, Sakura briefly wonders where Kakashi is as she rushes to Shisui's rescue.

She kicks Shin away from Shisui.

"Let him go," Sakura says.

"Where's - " Shin turns around and his eyes land on Sai. Sakura sees him calm down slightly as he realizes that Sai is safe.

"Let him go," Sakura repeats, "You don't have to do this."

"Brother, what is going on?" Shin asks.

Sai, somewhat scared of his brother's reaction to his betrayal, bites his lip and it is the only outward expression that Sakura can spot. Had this been during her time, Sai would have no expression at all. His training is still at the beginning, meaning that Sai hasn't learned to completely control his emotions yet. Shin hasn't passed yet either. Sai has more of an emotional capacity here.

"I…" Sai says.

"Do you wish to keep your brother safe, Shin?"

"I do."

"Then trust me," Sakura says, "I'll make sure you're both safe. You don't have to do this anymore."

Shin bites the inside of his cheek, as if debating whether or not to trust this pink haired girl, who is no doubt only a handful of years older than himself - but he doesn't see any deception in her eyes. All he sees in this girl is honor.

"Fine," Shin says.

"Good," she responds, "I'm going to need you two to answer a few questions of mine though. Do you mind?"

Both of the boys shake their heads.

"Thank you," she responds, "And don't worry, you have my word. Come with me on this mission, and when we return to Konoha, I will speak to the Hokage about this Root bullshi - crap." Sakura isn't one to curse normally, but just thinking about Root - about how hard Danzo tried to eradicate emotions and weakness - she gets mad. She'll keep them safe. She performs a cursory checkup on Shisui's body. It seems that he has been drugged, but it's not a strong one. Shisui will wake up soon enough, Sakura diagnoses.

"Thank you," says Sai. Shin nods. Sai gives Shin a weird look, as if this isn't the way he normally acts, and Sakura remembers the stories that Sai had told him about his older brother before. Shin probably isn't always like this. He's still unsure whether or not to trust Sakura.

"Do you know where my other teammate is?" Sakura asks as she hauls Shisui onto her back.

"Do you need help?" Sai asks.

Sakura shakes her head. "No, I'm good," she pauses, "Not that you'd be able to help."

"Hey!" Shin protests in Sai's defense.

Sakura laughs and continues walking. She walks a little ahead of the two boys, trusting that they wouldn't attack her.

"Kakashi?!" Sakura calls out. "Hinata!"

No response.

Walking deeper into the forest, she calls out again, "Kakashi! Hinata!"

Still no response.

A small feeling sets inside of Sakura's stomach and she identifies it as fear. What if something happened to the two of them?

"You two were the only ones sent on this mission, right?" Sakura asks Sai and Shin.

Both of them nod simultaneously.

Maybe Kakashi is just out of hearing range, Sakura tries to convince herself.

"Kakashi! Hinata!" She is unable to track Kakashi's chakra. She tries to track Hinata's, but it seems that they are either too far away for her to track Hinata's current lack of chakra right now or Kakashi managed to hide Hinata's chakra too.

Still no response.

"Kakashi! Hina - !" She feels Shisui stir on her back.

"Hikari?" Shisui asks, "What happened?"

"Your eyes almost got clawed out," Sakura says nonchalantly.

"Wait, what?" he asks, alerted.

"Oh don't worry, I saved you and your precious eyes," she says.

"Oh," he pauses, "Thanks."

"If you're really grateful, do you mind walking by yourself, and also using your awesome eyes to find our other teammate and the girl we're supposed to protect and escort?" she asks. She pauses. "Sorry if I'm coming across as mean," she says, "Just anxious to find them."

"I'll look for them," says Shisui. Getting off her back, he activates his sharingan. "Stay here. I'll be back."

Sakura nods, but right before she can do anything else, she collapses. Shisui rushes forward to catch her before she hits the ground. "Are you okay?" Shisui asks, obviously worried and alerted.

"I'm fine," she says, "Just a little lightheaded." She tries her best to keep her eyes open, but it doesn't work well, and soon, her eyes close and her body limps.

"The drug isn't done with her body yet," says Shin, "Probably. I was wondering why she wasn't unconscious."

"What? But she was fine before," says Shisui.

"Adrenaline, I think," Shin responds.

"She's been fine this whole time, shouldn't it be done by now though?" Sai asks.

"She's smaller than he is," Shin answers, "It'll take longer to get out of her system."

Shisui looks at the two. Who are they? If he had to guess though, he would say that they are the ones that attacked them in the first place. Shisui doesn't trust them. He wouldn't trust an unconscious Hikari to them.

What should he do? Looking for Kakashi and Hinata with Sakura on his back will surely slow him down. He also shouldn't let the two criminals free either.

As a last thought, he lowers Sakura down to the ground gently. Turning away, he bites his thumb and proceeds to press his hand to the ground. As a result, a seal forms around his hands and a bunch of crows fly out from the glowing ground.

"Find Hatake Kakashi and Hyuuga Hinata," he says. "Tell them to meet us at the inn in the next town."

"Aye," the birds crow and then proceed to fly away.

Sai and Shin watch in awe.

"What?" Shisui asks.

"That was awesome," the two of them say in unison.

"It's just a summon," Shisui responds, "Let's go." He lifts Sakura up on his back and begins leading the way. He keeps his sharingan activated as he walks, just in case the two younger boys behind him decide to attack. "We're going to move fast. Let me know when you get tired." Shisui proceeds to jump onto a tree branch. He waits until the two boys do the same before jumping onto the next branch.

X

When Sakura wakes up, she is laying on a very soft bed. She groans as she gets up onto her forearms on the bed.

"You're finally up," says Shisui, rubbing his eyes. He is sitting on a seat next to the bed she's on.

"Did I wake you?" she asks.

He nods a little.

"I'm surprised you actually woke up," she says.

"Hey!"

Sakura laughs. "So what happened?"

"Apparently it takes a lot longer for the drug to get out of your system," says Shisui.

Sakura shakes her head, "We all have different reactions to different drugs. I guess I'm more susceptible to this one." She shrugs. She really should try to extract it from her system and figure out the properties soon. If it is the same one as the one that was in Shisui's system, she would have to figure out why it had a different effect on her.

"I see," she says, "I'll figure out why later. Did you find Kakashi and Hinata?"

"Yeah," he responds, "My crows found him about two hours ago. They should be here soon."

"Where were they?"

"Those two boys you are planning on helping - they're good. Managed to throw Kakashi and his dogs off somehow."

"They're well trained. If I save them now, things can change for them."

Shisui gets suspicious, but he chooses not to say anything. He doesn't know if he wants to know the answer. What if it's something he doesn't want to know? What if it turns out that she actually is evil? What if she's not all that he has made her out to be?

"Where are the boys?" she asks.

"They're in the other room," he responds, "What happened?"

"They were trained in Konoha to be part of ANBU. It's a smaller faction called Root. I'm not sure if you've heard of it," she says.

"How do you know this?"

"I just do." He silences. "Well, anyways," she pauses, "The training program for Root requires them to fight their most important person until one of them dies. I don't want those two to have to fight each other like that."

"Do you really not remember anything?" Shisui asks.

"I don't remember anything," Sakura says.

"So this stuff is just basic knowledge to you? I wonder who you were before you lost your memory…"

"Yeah, we all do." She looks down, "I will save them."

Silence.

"I'll try to help," Shisui says.

"Thank you, Shisui," she replies, smiling.

"Anything for you, Hikari," he says.

And suddenly she feels guilty all over again. This boy is putting so much faith and trust in her, and all she does is lie, lie, and lie. She wishes she could tell them who she is, but would they even believe her? To say she comes from the future - it's probably harder to believe than anything else. She also feels guilty because she now knows of Shisui's feelings towards her. It hasn't been long, but she knows there are people really fast. She suddenly feels as though she is leading him on.

She feels so guilty.

X

The rest of the escort mission goes fine. In Kumogakure, Sakura joins Hinata as the latter meets her alleged betrothed. Hinata, kindhearted and polite as always, would make the perfect wife to any man, but she is but a seven year old right now and her 'betrothed' is seven years her senior and way more immature than normal boys his age. He was spoiled and pretty horrible..

Sakura figures that the arranged marriage falls through.

The boy doesn't seem interested in waiting for a little girl to grow up.

He had actually shown more interest in Sakura than he did in Hinata, but of course, Shisui got annoyed every time the rotten boy was near.

Eventually, Sakura settled for avoiding the annoying boy. Shisui supported this action. Kakashi also couldn't stand the boy, but he did love teasing him and making him look stupid - which he probably shouldn't have done, but he did anyway.

Now they are almost back at Konoha.

It's been a day past a week - longer than it was supposed to be, but that's okay.

Prior to arriving back at Konoha, Sakura convinces Sai and Shin to change their appearances to hide from Danzo. Hinata was escorted back to the Hyuuga estate and then the rest of them then headed towards the Hokage Tower to give Hiruzen their report.

At the Hokage Tower, Kakashi gives the report. Hiruzen questions the two kids with his three-man team, but he doesn't verbally ask. Sakura gets his message anyways. After the talk, Sakura remains in the room.

"Stay outside with them, please, Shisui," Sakura asks.

Shisui nods. Before the door closes, Sakura hears a poof, notifying her that Kakashi has already left. He doesn't really have anything to do with this anyways. Eventually, though, Sakura will have to talk to Kakashi. He is another person that she probably should tell the truth to.

"What's going on?" Hiruzen asks.

"The two of them are trainees of Root," Sakura explains, "As part of their initiation, they have to fight with the person they care for most until one of them dies. I don't want that to happen. Their mission was to attack Shisui and essentially gauge out his eyes and bring his eyes back to Danzo. I was wondering if it was possible for you to end Root."

Silence.

"I'll try. Danzo is very popular among Konoha citizens. It is very hard to bring him down. Shisui is also fine. It's hard to blame Danzo for something that had no outcome."

Sakura bites her cheek in thought. "Is there any way that we can protect those two kids outside though?"

"I'm not sure. For now, I'll speak to Danzo about this. I trust you to find a place for those two boys to stay."

"Thank you." Sakura bows.

Hiruzen smiles and nods. "See you tomorrow. I'll keep your team off of missions for now."

Sakura nods and exits the room.

She looks at Shin and Sai. She'd rather they not stay with Shisui, after all, who knows if they truly are on her side now. She can trust the Sai from her time, but this is a different time. This is a different Sai.

"He says he'll speak to Danzo," says Sakura, "For the time being, we have to keep you two out of Danzo's reach." She contemplates a place for them to stay. She couldn't possibly ask the Uchiha's to let them stay, right? They're already doing so much for her.

She mentally sighs as she pulls out her wallet. Honestly, she has made quite the load of money throughout the years of working back during her time. With the myriad of missions she picked up and the many shifts at the hospital, she has become quite wealthy.

Thankfully, she brought her wallet with her when she came to this time.

Also, her money is worth more at this time than it is during her time.

"You two will be staying at a place of your choice for now," she says, "Okay? I'll get this problem solved for you." Honestly, she wouldn't even mind assassinating Danzo if it came down to it. With Danzo gone, many horrible events wouldn't occur. During this time, he is still without the multiple sharingan implants, which means he's more vulnerable. Of course, that is not to say that he is in any way weak. She just doesn't think that it will be hard to assassinate him, but she'd rather not - it isn't usually her type of work.

But she has done it before.

Every shinobi has or will at some point.

"Are you sure?" asks Sai. During these few days around Sai, Sakura has seen more emotion on his face than she did in the two years that she has known him. At this time, he is still fairly innocent.

"Why are you going so far to protect us?" Shin asks.

"Because I don't want to see bad things happen to good people," Sakura states, smiling. "Now come on, let's go find you guys a place to stay for now." She throws an arm around both brothers' shoulders and leads them away. Shisui follows behind them, wondering if there is an alternative meaning behind all of 'Hikari's' actions. She seems so suspicious. He often wonders if she truly lost her memory or not. After all, how could she possibly know so much and care so much for people she doesn't know? But at the same time, none of them know her - is she just a caring person in general?

Again, he doesn't want to know.

Also, how does she have so much money?

He follows behind them as Sakura leads the two currently brown-haired boys to a nearby inn. After getting them all settled into a room, Sakura decides that they should go eat, but first, they need to drop by two places - Naruto's place and Sasuke's house.

After picking up Naruto, they head to Sasuke's house.

"Hikari-chan, you're back!" sings Mikoto. "Oh who are these kids?"

"This is Sai, and this is Shin," Sakura introduces.

Mikoto smiles warmly at the two kids. "Well, come in, come in," she says, "We're just about to have dinner."

"Oh really?" Sakura asks, "I was going to take them to eat."

"No need for that now that you're here," says Mikoto, "I've made enough to feed an army anyways."

"Why would you cook so much, ba-chan?" Shisui asks.

"Because I figured you'd be back soon," Mikoto says.

At Shisui's unamused face, Sakura and Mikoto both laugh. The three younger kids are fairly confused.

"Anyways, where's Sasuke-kun and Itachi?" Sakura asks.

"They're out training, as always," Mikoto answers.

"I'll go get them," says Sakura.

"Great, thanks!" Mikoto says. "Come on kids, come in." She ushers the younger kids and Shisui into the dining room as Sakura leaves to fetch the Uchiha brothers.

X

Arriving at the training grounds, Sakura watches in awe as Itachi jumps, with his eyes closed, and throws multiple kunai at multiple targets. Some kunai ricochet off each other and still hit targets. Sakura sees Sasuke at the side, watching in admiration. He really did love his brother very much.

She feels a pain at her heart as she watches these two.

They didn't deserve all of that pain.

As Itachi lands back onto the ground, he opens his eyes and looks at her. "You're back from your mission."

"Yeah," she says, smiling a little, "That was amazing."

"I know right!" Sasuke exclaims, running up to her, "One day, I'll be able to do that!"

Sakura smiles as she pats Sasuke's head, "I know you will."

Itachi watches her features. 'Hikari' doesn't seem like a person who is good at hiding her emotions - especially since he can tell that she is hurting right now. Why though? Was it the mission?

"What's wrong?" he asks.

Sakura looks at him in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"You look sad."

Sakura holds back a gasp. Is she that easy to read?

"Really? She looks fine to me," says Sasuke.

Sakura laughs, "That's because I am fine."

"Is Shisui okay?" Itachi asks. He is a little worried. He is worried every time that idiot goes on a long mission.

"Shisui is fine," Sakura says, "He's actually at your house right now, probably annoying your mother to the ends of the world and back."

Itachi smiles at that.

"I'm supposed to bring you guys back to eat dinner," Sakura says, "Are you guys ready?"

Sasuke nods, "I'm hungry."

"I'll stay behind for a bit," he says.

Sakura understands, "Well, we'll go back first then."

Itachi nods and, as she and Sasuke walk away, Sakura hears the familiar sound of metal hitting metal. He's training still. Sakura wonders why Uchiha Itachi feels such a need to train. He already is one of the best, so why? It's not as if he has something to prove. Everyone already knows that he is talented beyond compare.

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura says, "Can I ask you something?"

"Hm?" Sasuke mumbles.

"Why does Itachi train so much? He's already really good."

Sasuke shrugs. "I don't know. I wish he would take a break once in a while so I can catch up to him."

Sakura smiles. "He has five years on you, Sasuke-kun."

"So? I'll improve faster than anyone else there is."

Sakura can't doubt that. Sasuke does eventually surpass people faster than people thought possible. Sakura doesn't condone his betrayal of Konoha, but she cannot disagree with the fact that Sasuke did get really strong under Orochimaru's guidance.

"Everyone has their own pace," Sakura says, "Pushing yourself towards a goal is good, but you should go at your own pace."

"I don't have time for that," says Sasuke.

"What do you mean?"

"I want to surpass my brother, and he only gets better with each passing day."

"You'll get there, Sasuke-kun. I believe in you." She smiles and Sasuke smiles back.

Sasuke never really heard encouraging words. Everything was always _expected_ of him because of his brother. When people look at him, they never truly see _him_ - they see his brother and his clan. He is always pressured to live up to the expectations of others. 'Hikari', however, seems to get him in a way that no one else has before.

"I believe in you too," he says as takes her slightly larger hand into his small one.

Sakura knows that, even though her time is different, she will always protect Naruto and Sasuke until the end of the world. She'll always choose them above all else - above everyone else.

It will always be them against the world - against all odds.

* * *

Let me know what you think~~! :) Reviews make me feel better. Hahaha.


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